Kristin Armstrong wins Redlands time trial, takes overall lead

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Kristin Armstrong (Twenty16-RideBiker) won the stage 3 individual time trial Friday at the Redlands Bicycle Classic and propelled herself into the race lead as overnight leader Mara Abbott's performance suffered from the effects of a fractured collarbone sustained in a crash the day before.

Armstrong, who trailed Abbott by 33 seconds going into the stage, beat the Amy D Foundation rider by 1:06 on the 11.4km out-and-back course in the community of Highlands. Amber Neben (Dare to Be Project) finished second on the day, 22 seconds behind Armstrong, while Rally Cycling’s Jasmin Glaesser was third at 24 seconds back.

The Greenspot Time Trial course started with an uphill grind to the turnaround, gaining 120 metres of elevation that riders descended on the way back tot he finish. Armstrong said that despite the relatively short distance, the course provided a difficult test.

“It was short, but I have to say it was very deceiving,” she said. “It was very heavy. I think most of the riders started off in the big chainring, but about a half mile from the top when you hit six percent, a lot of us dropped into our small chainring.”

Armstrong said her plan was to not focus on saving too much for the return trip.

“My philosophy and my mantra is that you have to hurt as bad on the uphill as you do on the downhill,” she said “And that’s really difficult for some people to do.”

Despite having won the stage 2 Yucaipa Road Race and taking the race lead on Thursday, Abbott had her shoulder X-rayed that evening because of pain caused by injuries from a crash with about 30km remaining in the stage. The X-ray revealed a fractured clavicle, but Abbott decided Friday morning to continue racing.

“As far as fractures go, it’s not bad,” she said. “It’s on the very tip of the bone, so it probably won’t make it worse to ride on it. They recommended I go to my orthopaedist, but I told them I didn’t have one of those, and theoretically they would be in Colorado anyway. So it came down to my own game-time decision.”

Because of her decision to start on Friday, Abbott’s hopes of repeating her 2015 win are still alive, but she’ll need to pull back more than half a minute over Saturday’s criterium and Sunday’s Sunset Road Race. Armstrong, however, said she’s ready to defend her lead and pay off her team’s efforts to protect her throughout the week.

“I’m definitely focused on the yellow jersey, and I think we have lot of cards to play tomorrow in the criterium,” she said. “I think we have enough time now that there’s not much tomorrow but for me to stay safe, and we have some great sprinters and finishers on the team, so I look forward to participating and protecting our fast-twitch teammates.”

Abbott was more focused on Sunday’s road race, which she said is a hard course to defend on.

“Once I went into Sunset leading and I lost Redlands by one second, so that can swing both ways,” she said. “Sunset is a really cool course. It’s a really hard course, so I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes day by day.”

Assuming everything goes as planned for Armstrong and Twenty16-RideBiker on Saturday, the race will almost certainly come down to the finale of the Sunset Road Race, where there are also bonuses of 10, six and four seconds for the top three.

“Mara’s a great climber, and I think that Sunset is her favourite stage next to one of the stages at Gila,” Armstrong said. “But as I said in many interviews already, Redlands has lived up to expectations. We all know it comes to the last day, so I can’t lose focus now.”

Results

General Classification after stage 3