Colorado Classic: Dygert-Owen completes hat-trick on stage 3

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Chloe Dygert-Owen (Sho-Air Twenty20) stunned the Colorado Classic peloton once again with an unanswerable solo attack in the final lap of the Golden circuit during stage 3. Already in the race lead, the American put further distance between herself and the rest of the field, finishing five seconds ahead of teammate Jennifer Valente and Rebecca Wiasak (Fearless Femme) to take her third consecutive stage win in as many days.

It appeared that Dygert-Owen was simply sprinting for the final QOM points at the start of the final lap, but when the chasing field eased up, she put her head down and continued to power through to open up, at one point, a 35-second gap. Despite visibly suffering in the final kilometre, Dygert-Owen dug deep to hold off the chase group and extend her overall race lead.

"It was kind of an on-the-fly decision," Dygert-Owen said of her attack. "I had that gap and I looked back and saw some heads hanging, so I was thinking I would keep it going as long as I could. I knew Jen [Valente] was back there getting ready for the sprint, so I knew either way we were going to have a solid sprint. It just really worked out well for us."

Dygert-Owen's advantage fell down to less than 10 seconds in the final 5km, but the three-time track team pursuit world champion bore down once more and had enough left to hold off the field.

How it unfolded

At 102.5km, stage 3 in Golden was the longest of the four-day race. The stage started in downtown, went past – and under, via a tunnel – the Coors brewery.

The stage featured three intermediate sprints across the start/finish line and one QOM was on offer at 88.2km.

Large crowds filled the streets of Golden for the race, with the 14.6km circuit providing plenty of spots for viewing. The stage started quickly as riders got used to the circuit they’d spend the next several hours on.

Rachel Langdon (Fearless Femme) took maximum points at the first sprint at the end of lap 1, but the field quickly reeled the rider back in as they made their way over the climb directly following the finish line.

Attacks came more frequently on lap 2, with multiple groups of three trying to get away but failing to get anything to stick. The peloton was clearly not feeling in the mood to let any escapees get some leash, and the constant attacking and chasing saw the peloton cover 40km in the first hour.

Three riders finally broke free on lap 5, with Langdon joining Swapit-Agolico’s Maria Jose Vargas and Andrea Ramirez off the front. Eight riders bridged up to the move to form a lead group of 11.

The peloton was obviously not happy with the size of the group, however, and the leaders were back in the fold before the end of the lap.

Silvia Valsecchi (BePink) and Rebecca Wiasak (Fearless Femme) took advantage of a lull in the pace after the catch and jumped away. The two-rider move was more agreeable to the bunch, and the lead duo quickly has 25 seconds.

Wiasak took maximum points at the final sprint ahead of the day in front of Valsecchi, while overall runner-up Brodie Chapman (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) jumped out of the field to claim one point and one bonus second.

With 23km to go, the gap was at 40 seconds as attacks from the peloton cut into the leaders’ advantage. The gap went back up as the attacks stopped, and with 18.5km remaining the leaders had 55 seconds.

As the remaining kilometres ticked down, so did the leaders’ advantage, and with 15km to go the duo up front had 20 seconds on the bunch.

The leaders took the bell for the final lap with the peloton biting at their heels, and they were soon back in the fold on the climb after the finish.

Overall race leader Dygert-Owen attacked on the climb with 14km to go and opened up a gap. The rest of the peloton hesitated, and the seven-time world champion had 30 seconds with 10.5km to go.

The peloton eventually woke up to the danger, and a concerted chase from Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank and Canyon-SRAM had the gap down top 10 seconds with 4km remaining, but it was not enough.

Stage Results