Colorado Classic: Mannion wins Vail time trial

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Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare) claimed the uphill individual time trial at the Colorado Classic on Friday, sailing across the line at the top of Vail Pass with a time of 25:41 to also take the leader's jersey from overnight leader Gage Hecht (Aevolo), who finished 21st on the stage, 1:30 back.

Mannion's teammate Sergehi Tvetcov finished second on the stage, 11 seconds behind, followed by EF Education First-Drapac's Hugh Carthy in third at 21 seconds back.

Mannion now leads the overall by 11 second over Tvectov and by 20 seconds over Carthy.

"This is huge," said Mannion, who lives in Colorado Springs. "This is the biggest win I've ever had, so that's awesome, and it's a huge win for team as well. It kind of comes at a crucial moment, with UnitedHealthcare looking for a sponsor next year. So to go one-two with a race at this level, you can't really ask any more for today."

With the stage starting at altitude and finishing at 2,950 metres of elevation, pacing was crucial on the early flat sections so as not to blow up once the climb started. Mannion pulled it off well, although he said he had initial doubts.

"It's really hard with the altitude here," he said. "You kind of just have to go by feel, and hopefully you can hang on at the end. I actually thought I went out too hard, but luckily I was able to kind of keep it going to the finish. But, yeah, with the high altitude it's really tough to measure that effort."

Hecht lost the race lead and slipped to 17th overall, but he could take consolation from the fact that he continues to lead the points and mountains classifications, although EF-Drapac's Daniel Martinez took over as best young rider. Hecht said the rest of the race will be a balancing act between defending his remaining jerseys and helping his teammates who are fighting for a GC result.

"Of course I always want to keep the jerseys," Hecht said. "That's really cool thing to walk away form Colorado with at least one jersey. I mean that's incredible. But definitely I'll be looking out for the other riders on the team. We all work together pretty smoothly, and I always want to make sure they have theist chance of getting a result as well. It just kind of depends on how tomorrow unravels."

The race continues Saturday with a 127.8km out-and-back course from Denver that includes three KOMs over Lookout Mountain, Deer Creek in Cragmont and Indian Hills, which tops out 40km from the finish.

How it unfolded

The Colorado Classic's second stage reprised the Vail Pass time trial course that was used in the Red Zinger Mini Classic and Coors Classic in the 1970s and '80s, and then was brought back for the USA Pro Challenge in 2013 and 2014. BMC Racing's Tejay van Garderen set the course record of 24:26 on his way to winning the 2014 USA Pro Challenge title.

The 16.2km course started in Vail Mountain Plaza, which sits at 2,514 metres of elevation, and climbed to the top of Vail Pass at 2,950 metres high. The course started on the brick and cobbled roads in the quaint Vail shopping village, then almost immediately took riders onto the ascent on a narrow bike path.

Unlike the women's race, where riders were allowed to compete on full time-trial rigs, the men were limited to road bikes with no bar extensions or disc wheels.

EF-Drapac's trainee Jose Fernandes left the start house as the first of 80 riders and set the benchmark time of 27:48, which stood as the top time until Kyle Murphy (Rally Cycling) crossed the nearly an hour later with a time of 26:59.

From there, the top times started to fall regularly as the GC contenders were out on course.

Murphy's time stood only a briefly, as Keegan Swirbul (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), who started two riders later, came in with a time of 26:48. Five riders later, Rally Cycling's Rob Britton came in with a new top time of 26:29.

Holowesko-Citadel's TJ Eisenhart came close to Britton's mark, crossing the line nine seconds slower to slot into second place at the time.

Starting five riders later, Joe Dombrowski (EF-Drapac) set a blistering time of 26:06 over the course to knock Britton out of the hot seat, and then Damian Howson (Mitchelton-Scott) came in at 26:08 to knock Britton down to third at the time.

EF-Drapac's Carthy was next to top the leader board, coming in at 26:02 to take the stage lead ahead of Dombrowski and Howson.

Mannion was the next stage leader, however, clocking a time of 25:41 after catching his minute man and nearly catching the rider who started two minutes ahead, crossing the line with that rider's team car.

Mannion's time held up well as the most of the top GC contenders finished, with Tvetcov coming close with a time of 25:52 to slot into second. None of the others was able to challenge Mannion's time.

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