Armstrong wins Tour of the Gila opener

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At the conclusion of the first stage of the SRAM Tour of the Gila, Australian UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Rory Sutherland showed the beginnings of superb form by riding away from a small pack of front-runners during the last kilometers of the final climb from Silver City to Mogollon.

There was constant activity at the opening of the 151.3km race to Mogollon, with Kenda 5 Hour Energy rider Paul Mach and Ekoi.com's Adam Carr breaking away in the first 16kms. The two steadily gained a maximum lead of 7:45 over the rest of the peloton before being swallowed up after 106kms.

The end result was decided by the final and only category one climb of the day, when Competitive Cyclist's late efforts to control the pace began to wear on the team.

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UnitedHealthCare took control and, at the start of the 11km, 640 meter climb, a group of six riders formed, which included last year's over all GC winner Competitive Cyclist's team captain Francisco Mancebo, along with teammate Chad Beyer, Sutherland, Jason McCartney, Sebastian Salas, and Chris Baldwin.

At three kilometers to go, the group splintered under Sutherland's pace, leaving riders Mancebo and Chris Baldwin to fight for a top 10 placing as the gradient rose to 19 per cent.

Sutherland managed to put 25 seconds on Beyer and Salas as Bontrager Livestrong U25 rider Joe Dombrowski stormed past to finish second with a late surge to the line in the last kilometer.

Sutherland has recently returned from racing in Europe and said this stage win has helped generate some much-needed motivation.

"We've just had setback after setback with sickness and equipment breaks, just all these little things cascading," Sutherland told Cyclingnews. "When you are away from home and all it adds more to it. Everything is easier at home."

Even though UnitedHealthcare is using the Tour of the Gila in preparation for the Amgen Tour of California, Sutherland said that the team is at the race to win.

"We are really happy to be here at a race that has been saved by SRAM. It nearly died because of financial reasons, so we are really excited to be here and to start getting victories instead of seconds and fifths."

Second place finisher and leader of the Young Rider Competition Joe Dombrowski said that, before the last climb, he managed to benefit from UnitedHealthcare's strong pace-setting for Sutherland.

"The gaps opened up and I was just riding across gaps," Dombrowski said. "Tomorrow is typically a bunch finish, so for me it will be mostly about just staying safe and staying out of the wind."

The climber from Virginia said he plans to make an impact on the last stage of the tour, where the nearly three kilometers of climbing over 106 kilometers of racing will work to his advantage.

"My time-trialing is definitely not my strong point," he told Cyclingnews. "It's something I'm working on, so for me it's really going to be trying to maintain where I am until the last stage."

Tomorrow, the UCI pro men will tackle three, category three climbs in 129 kilometers before finishing in Fort Bayard. 

Armstrong back on top in Gila

The Tour of the Gila's Women's pro race got off to an aggressive start today, as the 62 rider peloton began their first stage of the five day race with plenty of action.

After the first bonus sprint at 56 kilometres, Exergy TWENTY12 rider Jackie Crowell attacked with her teammate Kristin Armstrong hot on her wheel. Now and Novartis for MS rider Alison Powers bridged with a few others to make a total of seven riders in the breakaway: Crowell, Armstrong, Powers, Loren Rowney (FCS-Rouse/Mr. Restore), Joanie Caron (Colavita-espnW), Liza Rachetto (Primal/MapMyRide) and Jade Wilcoxson (Optum Pro Cycling).

The breakaway was working together smoothly, building up a lead of over a minute when suddenly the race turned into chaos. The group was led the wrong way at a turn, causing the race officials to neutralize the race until the break was led back to the course.

"I was in the caravan, following the main peloton and when I went up to the commissaire to ask if I could talk to my riders in the break, Exergy Team Manager Nicola Cranmer said. "She answered, ‘well, we don't know where they are.' Of course they took a wrong turn so everyone was panicked."

After the re-start, Cranmer said the race officials gave the break the 1:15 time gap they had before the mishap.

"I was thinking that it was a great opportunity for the peloton to organize themselves for the chase that was about to happen," Cranmer said.

But the peloton failed to organize, and the gap increased under the powerful legs of Jackie Crowell and Kristen Armstrong, and they maintained the break to the bottom of the final climb. But as the pace picked up, Rowney fell behind, and later Rachetto, Caron and then Crowell each were dropped.

As the leaders turned the corner to face the 640 meter ascent there were three together: Armstrong, Wilcoxson and Powers with Optum's Carmen Small in full pursuit, but behind them a crash in the peloton at the base of the climb disrupted the chase.

"In the middle of the climb was a flat part with crosswinds where the group started an echelon," European Director Team TIBCO Angela van Smoorenburg told Cyclingnews. "Because riders were fighting for their place, there was a crash, which the whole group split up in several small groups and single riders. One of my riders, Veronique Fortin, was involved in this crash."

The crash caused Team TIBCO to fall back to help their fallen riders, leaving the front of the race open for Exergy, Optum and NOW and Novartis to contend the finish.

Armstrong attacked on the category one climb up the Mogollon, and at that point the gap between her and the small group grew quickly. The 2008 Olympic gold medallist crossed the line 2:18 ahead of Optum's Carmen Small, with her teammate Wilcoxson in third.

Heading into the next stage, Armstrong holds the leader and the queen of the mountain jerseys. The U26 young rider jersey will be defended by her Exergy teammate Tayler Wiles.

"I think it is pretty much wide open and there will be a lot of opportunities for a lot of teams so it's going to be some good racing," Cramer said. "Today's race was very aggressive and active and was actually an hour faster than it was last year. I think the same will happen tomorrow."

The 103km Inner Loop Road Race is on tap for the pro women tomorrow at the SRAM Tour of the Gila.

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