Colorado Classic: Gage Hecht wins opening stage in Vail

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Gage Hecht (Aevolo) shocked the sprinters' teams Thursday during the opening circuit race of the Colorado Classic in Vail, dropping his three breakaway companions on the final lap and then holding off the peloton by a handful of seconds to take the stage win and first leader's jersey of the race.

Hecht, 20, the reigning U23 time trial and criterium champion, bridged up to a three-rider move about halfway through the race. He contributed to the escape up though the last of eight laps, then dropped his fellow escapees on the short gravel climb after the start line and the ensuing descent.

"I didn't really expect at all to be able to make that move," Hecht said int he post-stage press conference. "I thought maybe I'll give it one last final attack. Maybe I'll get a little bit extra little bit of TV coverage, get my name out there a little more and then get absorbed by the pack at like 3km and then just try and hang on as best I could. I thought maybe because I had the time bonuses I could get the best young rider's jersey."

Hecht had 25 seconds over the field when the peloton swept up his former breakaway companions, then held on by six seconds as he climbed to the finish. It was a close chase all the way to the line, and even Hecht wasn't sure he could pull it off until the final metres.

"I kept hearing 20 seconds from the marshalls, which is a really good thing to hear at 3k to go," Hecht said. "Going into the final few real corners on the course, I could kind of see that there was still a pretty decent gap. After those last few corners you see 1k to go, and I had at least 15-20 seconds, and I knew with 1k to go I could just fight through whatever I needed to to just battle it out. That's when it kind of set in that I might be able to win this thing."

And win he did, posting up a single arm and finger as he crossed the line with the bunch coming in fast behind. UnitedHealthcare's Travis McCabe led the field across the line for second, followed by Holowesko-Citadel's Joe Lewis, Rally Cycling's Ty Magner and Aevolo's Michael Hernandez.

McCabe, who came into the stage a favourite after winning two stages last week at the Tour of Utah, said his team and the others simply ran out of horsepower to bring Hecht back.

"The last two laps got really hectic with guys attacking on the hill, and that forced gaps and a lot of disorganization, so by the time everyone was able to get back together, everyone was pretty much on the limit because of the altitude and the climb," the UnitedHealthcare sprinter said. 

"So you're kind of racing a few cards down. You don't have as many cards to play with," he said. "We put Daniel Jaramillo on the front as wells with Lachlan Norris trying to bring it back. They did a great job, but we just kind of ran out of guys and it seemed like pretty much the race ran out of guys. And Gage was just incredibly strong today, so you can't take anything away from him. He rode a beautiful race and came away with a pretty incredible win."

Thanks to a mid-race time bonus, Hecht leads McCabe by 12 seconds in the overall classification, with Lewis third at 14 seconds.

How it unfolded

The 109.1km opening stage of the Colorado Classic took place in Vail Village at 2,484 metres of elevation, recreating one of the staple stages of the Coors Classic in the 1980s. The 14.1km circuit started with an immediate uphill power climb that wasn't able to do much to detour the sprinters, followed by a technical descent. The men covered right laps.

The stage featured time bonuses of three, two and one second at two intermediate sprints, coming at 38.3km and 66.6km. Three KOMs counted toward the first mountains jersey if the race, with points awarded at 12.6km, 48.5km and 70.5km. The stage included a total of 1,338 metres of elevation gain.

The peloton took the first lap with abandon as riders attacked in groups small and large, but nothing was able to stick.

Gage Hecht (Aevolo) took top honours at the first KOM ahead of Eder Frarye (Elevate-KHS), Alex Cataford (UnitedHealthcare) and TJ Eisenhart (Holowesko-Citadel), but the group they were in was also soon brought back into the fold as they started the third lap.

Niklas Eg (Trek-Segafredo) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (LottoNL-Jumbo) tried their luck next in a move and quickly opened up a 1:10 gap on the field as a small group tried to bridge. Austin Stephens (303 Project) and Alex Cataford (UnitedHealthcare) were the riders trying to bridge, with Hecht forming a third chase on the road after he jumped out of the bunch. Meanwhile, the peloton slipped back to 1:30.

Eg collected the three-second time bonus at the first intermediate print, making him the virtual leader on the road ahead of Eenkhoorn and Cataford.

Cataford dropped Stephens over the climb starting lap 4 and then connected with Eg and Eenkhoorn to form a new lead group of three. Hecht connected with Stephens and continued to chase, while Eenkhoorn took maximum points on the second KOM. Hecht also dispatched Stephens and successfully bridged to the breakaway as the four leaders increased their gap to 1:05.

Cataford took the maximum time bonus and points at the second intermediate sprint ahead of Hecht and Eenkhoorn, while Hecht claimed the third and final KOM.

EF Education First-Drapac set up on the front of the peloton to keep the breakaway in the check, and the chase was on from there. Rally Cycling threw Rob Britton into the chase at the start of the sixth lap as the gap to the leaders hovered at one minute, going to the front on the gravel climb and setting a pace that tore apart the peloton and bringing the leaders' gap down to 45 seconds.

The peloton started to feather the gap a bit so as not to catch the escapees too early, and the leaders started the penultimate lap with a gap of 1:05. The peloton shaved another 25 seconds off the leaders' gap over the next lap, starting the final lap with 40 seconds.

UnitedHealthcare began moving riders to the front for Travis McCabe, while Israel Cycling Academy shepherded sprinter Edwin Avila to the front. Rain that started falling late in the race made the gravel climb a bit muddy, but it didn't slow the peloton as EF Education First-Drapac's Dani Martinez hit out hard at the bottom, with UnitedHealthcare's Daniel Jaramillo tagged on.

Meanwhile at the front of the race, Hecht dropped his breakaway companions on the quick climb and descent, and the Colorado resident quickly opened a gap of 10 seconds on the trailing trio. The gap to the field went back up briefly, but when the peloton reeled in the chasing

EF-Drapac and Mitchelton-Scott took up the chase as Hecht's advantage hovered around 20 seocnd with just over 4km remaining. UnitedHealthcare went back to the front with 3km to go to help EF-Drapac and Mitchelton-Scott. Holowesko took up the chase in the last kilometre, but all the teams left it too late.

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