Gaimon, Abbott take Redlands overall

Phil Gaimon (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Mara Abbott (LA Sweat) survived the notoriously difficult Sunset Loop stage to take home the overall wins at the Redlands Bicycle Classic Sunday in Southern California.

Final stage glory fell to two sprinters, however, as Jamis-Hagens Berman's Sebastian Haedo and UnitedHealthcare's Coryn Rivera each grabbed their second stage wins of the race.

Gaimon's first win at Redlands in 2012 took place in brutally cold and wet conditions that knocked the field down to handful of finishers. Sunday's race in the mid-80s was more to his liking.

"It feels good," Gaimon told Cyclingnews after collecting his final yellow jersey of the race. "Last time it was a lot colder here. So I'm happy. Today was a lot easier. I'm not going to lie."

The men’s 151km race consisted of 12 laps around the lumpy loop on the south side of Redlands, followed by five laps of the criterium course that was used for stage 4 the previous day.

The fireworks started on the first lap when Flavio DeLuna (Team SmartStop), Toms Skujins (Hincapie Racing), Nate English (Mike’s Bikes) and Taylor Sheldon (Alto Velo-Seasucker) escaped from the bunch. They were soon joined by Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) and Coulton Hartrich (IRT Racing) to form a group of six that would be the main protagonists throughout the day.

With none of the riders posing a serious threat to Gaimon's overall lead, Optum gave the group a bit of leash, and the escapees extended their lead to 1:45 with six circuits remaining before Jamis picked up the chase to preserve Gregory Brenes' lead in the KOM competition, which Morton was in serious danger of taking away.

The gap started to fall precipitously, and when Hartrich suffered a mechanical and fell out of the group along with Skujins, the breakaway's hopes began to dim. The gap was down to less than a minute with three circuits remaining, and the original breakaway was down to just Deluna with two to go.

SmartStop's Evan Huffman and Hincapie's Robin Carpenter joined Deluna to form a new lead group, but that effort was also soon swallowed up by the reduced peloton.

A group of about 40 riders exited the Sunset Loop and made its way toward downtown Redlands for the five closing laps on the crit course, where several riders tried to sneak away, but the group approached the finale together.

SmartStop's Travis McCabe took the initiative and led through the final corners, but the 2014 National Racing Calendar champion couldn't hold off the powerful charge from Haedo, who passed McCabe just before the line to take the win.

"He just had more of a snap than I did," McCabe said. "He came around me with maybe 20 metres to go and got me by six inches, half a wheel. Yeah, there's nothing I can do in that situation. He was just better than me today."

Haedo said he tried to go into the final corner first, but McCabe beat him to it, so he regrouped for the charge to the line.

"When he was in the front I waited and I chose my gear," Haedo said. "Then in the last corner, I pedaled into the corner and got out of the corner with good speed. Then in the finish in the last 20 metres I passed him."

It was a good day for Jamis, which held onto Brenes' mountains jersey and topped it with Haedo's second stage win.

"I’m really happy for sure," the Argentinian sprinter said. "We have the mountains jersey and I won two stages this week, so the team is really happy to start like this. So we’ll see how things go in the next races, and then [Tour of] California is a big goal for us."

Gaimon crossed the line in yellow with the main group to earn his second overall win at the NRC opener, and he immediately praised his Optum teammates.

"I had to keep my head up," he said, "but the team had it really under control. It was super tame, and the guys all rode like 10 people each."

Rivera makes it two in a row, Abbott gets first Redlands overall

The women's 109km, nine-lap race also came down to a sprint after a two-rider breakaway was neutralized on the last lap, providing Rivera with another opportunity to do what she does best: using her fast finish to cross the line first in commanding fashion.

"We played all our cards right I think, and when it came down to it, it was a stage for the team," she told Cyclingnews in the finishing straight.

"The team had full faith in me to finish it off, and I had Scotti [Wilborne] and Katie [Hall] with me in the end, and they were just flying off attacks because we couldn't do a full crit leadout," Rivera said. "It gave them a chance at the win also, but it came all together at the end, so I took the corners right, took the line that I wanted to and came out of that corner first and crossed the line first."

Visit Dallas-Noise4Good rider Anna Sanders escaped on the first Sunset Loop and was joined by UnitedHealthcare's Rushlee Buchanan to make the day's breakaway. The duo built an ultimate gap of 1:50 with four circuits remaining before their advantage started to come back down. Sanders dropped Buchanan on lap seven and soldiered on alone, but she also fell prey to the chase and the reduced peloton was back together for the final loop.

The pressure ramped up as the end neared, and the field soon shattered as a lead group of 15 pounded down off the Sunset Loop toward town.

With no final downtown circuit for the women, positioning started early, and Rivera, who had won the night before in a one-two UnitedHealthcare finish with Alexis Ryan, relied again on her teammates to set her up for the finale.

The reigning US criterium champion followed a familiar path to the line, posting up in the same spot as the day before as she crossed the line for victory. Optum's Brianna Walle was able to deny the UHC "Blue Train" another one-two result, however, as she slipped in front of Hall to take the runner-up spot.

Abbott, the Wiggle Honda rider who was competing at Redlands with the LA Sweat composite team, finished safely in the lead group to take her first-ever Redlands overall crown.

"It's really awesome to be able to finally put this one in the record books, so I'm really excited about that," Abbott said. "We got the yellow jersey and I'm just really proud of these girls. They've never had that kind of responsibility before and they were amazing. They really stepped up to the challenge, and so I'm really happy to be able to be a part of this team and finally get a chance to win Redlands."

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