Wiasak wins opening stage at Colorado Classic Women's Race

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Australian criterium champion Rebecca Wiasak (Fearless Femme) claimed the opening stage of the Women’s Colorado Classic, out-sprinting Canadian Lex Albrecht and Kendall Ryan (both Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) in Vail.

The Australian profited from the peloton’s work to chase down lone escapee Leah Thomas (UnitedHealthcare) inside the final kilometre, then use her criterium prowess to attack at just the right time and her pursuiting strengths to take out the victory.

"I saw the 1km to go banner and one of the UHC girls was off the front, so I was like, 'Okay, if I bridge to her and launch off her, UHC aren't chasing because they have a rider off the front. I think some other teams must have been scrambling - but obviously I was trying not too look back too often. I looked back a couple of times, of course you don't want to raise your hands in the air until you're safely across the line. It hurt quite a bit," Wiasak said.

Wiasak, a former individual pursuit world champion arrived in time to acclimate to the altitude in Vail. She said that and the help of some guest riders made the difference.

"We came out during the week. We arrived on Sunday, so we've had a couple of days to settle in. It always takes me a couple of days to adjust to a new time zone and obviously we're at altitude here," Wiasak said.

"Flavia Oliveira is in the race, the Brazilian road race national champion, and Katie Compton is here, they're both guest-riding for Fearless Femme this week. To have them on the team, having the local knowledge, we've downloaded the ride to the Wahoo head unit, rode the course during the week, and I think that really made a difference because the climb was achievable, it was quite short. It was about positioning.

"Having said that, I was out of position every time up the climb but was able to get in a group that always got back on. The race panned out perfectly for me. I always had Flavia in the front group. She always made the split, she climbs so well."

Oliveira may turn into the team's leader over the course of the coming stages, Wiasak said, in particular because of the Vail uphill time trial on Friday.

The 52.4km circuit race in Vail started without the Mexican Conade squad, who were held up in Mexico City.

On the second lap, a group of 11 riders escaped, splitting the field briefly, but the peloton regrouped and came to the intermediate sprint point together.

Jen Valente (Twenty20 p/b Sho-Air) won the sprint ahead of Lauren Hall and Diana Penuela (UnitedHealthcare).

The main group then set out for the first of two mountain primes, the first of which was won by Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare) ahead of Thomas, and Rally’s Abigail Mickey and defending overall champion Sara Poidevin.

The climb proved a tempting point of attack, and Hall and Mickey forged a gap, but were quickly joined by Poidevin, Valente, Thomas, Flavia Oliveira (Fearless Femme), Maddy Ward (Amy D Foundation) and Gillian Ellsay (Rally).

The move was too dangerous to stick, and part of the peloton split off to join the leaders, making a front group of roughly 33 riders inside 20km to go.

The second dirt climb to the mountain sprint went to Thomas over Emma White (Rally), Poidevin and Katie Hall, and again there was a counterattack after the sprint.

This time it was Thomas and White who surged, but they were reeled in, further thinning the front group to two dozen riders.

Thomas decided to go again inside the 3km mark, but Rally drove the pace to set up their sprinters, bringing Thomas within sight at the kilometer to go banner. Wiasak took her chance to pounce as the catch was about to be made, and held off Tibco's Albrecht and Ryan.  

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