Hall wins Redlands stage 2 Yucaipa Road Race

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UnitedHealthcare's Katie Hall picked up where she left off last month at the Tour of the Gila, following her win in the final stage of the New Mexico race with a solo win in Oak Glen Thursday during stage 2 at the Redlands Bicycle Classic.

Hall and stage 1 time trial winner Amber Neben (Dare to be Project) rode away from the peloton with a select group on the slopes of the final climb before Hall dropped the time trial world champion with an attack in the final 2km to cross the finish line alone. Neben stayed close enough to the UnitedHealthcare rider to preserve her overall lead going into stage 3.

The stage 2 Yucaipa Road Race took place on a 22.5km circuit with a moderate climb that came early in the loop. The real challenge of the day came when riders turned off the circuit in the finale to tackle the 15km climb to Oak Glen. Organisers extended the climb this year, adding another 7km to the ascent, which took riders through the village and into open fields for the finish.

The peloton stayed together for more than an hour of racing before a group of eight finally went clear and built a workable gap. In the group were Abby Mickey (Colavita-Bianchi), Gilian Ellsay (Colavita-Bianchi), Caitlin LaRoche (Rally Cycling), Rushlee Buchanan (UnitedHealthcare), Ivy Audurain (Hagens Berman Supermint), Ingrid Drexel (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank), Anna Traxler (Trek Red Truck Racing) and Veronica Leal ((Conade-Visit Mexico). Mickey soon suffered a mechanical and dropped out of the group.

The leaders built a gap of 1:15 before the peloton stopped letting out slack in their leash, holding the group at just over a minute as the kilometres clicked by. The advantage started coming down as the final lap approached, and with 40km remaining the leaders had just over a minute. The gap was down to just 10 seconds with 15km to go. The escapees were back in the fold not long after, and the race reshuffled once more.

The peloton turned onto the final climb together, with Neben and UnitedHealthcare setting a pace that started to shred the field. From there, the select group started forming on the front that would eventually deliver Hall to victory. 

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