Lill, Cheatley win final Gila stage

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Darren Lill (Fly V Australia) won the fifth and final stage at the SRAM Tour of the Gila in the toughest way possible by attacking at the base of the queen stage's nearly-30km finishing ascent known as the Gila Monster. The South African strongman finished with a solo victory ahead of his all-day breakaway companions Rob Britton (Bissell) in second and Max Jenkins (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis) in third.

"We had quite a bunch of strong climbers and I felt fairly confident that if we worked together as a group we could hold our advantage," said Lill. "I knew it wasn't going to be easy but thank God I had good legs because that was a tough finish to the stage. I was really on the limit. The safer way to win is solo but it's not the easy way."

Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny's) was crowned the SRAM Tour of the Gila champion, beating DZ Nuts riders Tom Danielson, who placed second by one minute and the experienced Phillip Zajicek (Fly V Australia) in third.

"I'm happy with what we accomplished at the Tour of the Gila this week," said Leipheimer. "I came here straight from sea level and I think to do the performance I did showed that I'm in great shape. I honestly felt fine the whole week and was never in trouble. I don't think it could have gone any better."

Andrew Talanksy (California Giant Berry Farms) finished the stage race as the best young rider and individual pursuit world champion Taylor Phinney captured the event's best sprinter jersey.

Lill reins in the Gila Monster

Darren Lill is making a name for himself by winning queen stages the hard way. Similar to his victory in stage two of the Tour of the Utah last year, the South African rode away from his seven breakaway companions at the base of the grueling 30km climb through the Gila National Forest all the way to victory at the finish line located in Pinos Altos.

Lill's gap grew to a maximum of 45 seconds while the remnants of an original breakaway played a game of cat and mouse behind him. Lill's chasers included Britton, Jenkins, Burke Swindlehurst (Teamgive/Blackbottoms), Pat McCarty (Matrix-RBM), Jesse Sergent (Trek-Livestrong) and Caleb Fairly (Holowesko Partners).

Lill's lead to the main field was three-and-a-half minutes which posed a threat to race leader Leipheimer. In the last seven kilometres he took over from teammate Lance Armstrong in setting the pace to reduce the gap to a safer two-minute margin.

"The time gaps were up and down and then all of a sudden Johan [Bruyneel] drove up and said Lill had three-and-a-half minutes," Leipheimer explained. "At that point Lance had been pulling for a really long time and he gave it everything he had. I had to do the last five miles by myself and just to be safe I kept going to close the gap."

Lill saluted on the finish line a mere six seconds in front of the chasers sprinting for second and third place, won by Britton ahead of Jenkins.

"I went first with 500 metres to go but Rob Britton and Caleb Fairly caught me," Jenkins said of the sprint for second place. "I sat up a bit so I could get back around them and then Rob was leading, but not very hard. I went about 200 metres to go but Rob had just enough power to come back around me."

Tackling rain, snow and climbs

The 171km Gila Monster Road Race is daunting because of its four lengthy climbs through the outback of famed Gila National Forest, located in Silver City, New Mexico. This year the race was made even more epic due to the foul weather conditions with high winds, rain and bouts of snow.

Fourteen men committed to a long day off the front that included Lill, Britton, Jenkins, Swindlehurst, McCarty, Sergent and Fairly, along with Morgan Schmitt (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis), Jeremy Vennell and Paul Mach (Bissell), Andrew Randell (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy), Phil Gaimon (Kenda p/b Geargrinder) and Alister Ratcliff (BikeReg.com).

Race officials made the decision to redirect both the breakaway and the peloton from riding through a short San Lorenzo loop after being informed that tacks were deposited on the road. The diversion cut almost four kilometres from the total length of the race.

The break lost Gaimon to a flat tyre on the climb towards the ancient Indian Cliff Dwellings that marked the furthest section of the course. The break further was reduced to eight after losing Ratcliff, Randell, Vennell, Mach and Summerhill on the climb out of the Cliff Dwellings.

Back in the peloton, Tom Danielson put forth a tremendous effort over the steep ascent and brought three riders with him that included race leader Leipheimer, Phil Zajicek (Fly V Australia) and Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis). Danielson was the only ride inclined to work, however, and the four were caught on the descent by a group of climbers lead by Armstrong.

Armstrong continued to lead the chase for Leipheimer, Danielson, Zabriskie, Zajicek, Sutherland, Luis Amaran (Colavita-Baci p/b Colavita), Andrew Talansky (California Giant Berry Farms), Alex Hagman and Corey Collier (Ouch-Bahati Foundation) and Chris Baldwin (UnitedHealthcare p/n Maxxis). The climbers rounded out the top 20 places on the stage.

Cheatley tames the Monster as Abbott prevails

Cath Cheatley (Colavita-Baci p/b Cooking Light) finished this year's edition of Gila with a flourish, taking a stage win atop the famed Gila Monster, the second stage victory for her team this week. Cheatley tackled the 30km finishing climb and relegated eventual overall winner Mara Abbott (Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12) and Alison Powers (Vera Bradley Foundation) to second and third respectively.

"It is a pretty awesome feeling to win this stage," said Cheatley. "I've never quite put myself on the climbing podium so I'm really stoked. It is also a good feeling because the team had ridden so well this week and I wanted to finish it off well with them. It feels great to finish off with a band so that's cool."

Abbott won the overall title by more than two-and-a-half minutes from Powers and Cheatley. "This was a really fun week but definitely a hard one," said Abbott. "What was cool about it was that we went into every single stage without knowing what was going to happen and with a lot of variables and cards to play. I felt like I was riding with a very strong team and a very smart team. To be a part of that and come out with the win is very exceptional."

An early breakaway formed as soon as the gun blew to signal the start of the pro/elite women's 115km race. The eager riders included Alexis Rhodes (Vera Bradley Foundation), Modesta Vzesniauskaite (Colavita-Baci p/b Cooking Light), Janel Holcomb (Tibco), Rachel Warner (BMW-Bianchi), Andrea Graus (Webcor-Builders) and several other unidentified riders.

Only three riders remained off the front by the time the break reach the base of the final climb - Rhodes, Holcomb and Vzesniauskaite. They too were reeled back in after riding off the front for nearly 100km. Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12 were responsible for bring the field back together at the base of the climb.

Katheryn Mattis (Webcor-Builders) was the first to launch an attack over the steep sections near the bottom of the climb. She was followed by Abbott and Cheatley and the three continued to attack each one another. Abbott was the first to create a sizeable lead ahead of Cheatley. Mattis returned to the main field.

Cheatley bridged across to Abbott in the final kilometres of the race and made her move with 400 metres to the line to take the stage win.

Back in the dwindled field, Mattis did much of the work on the climb to try and close the gap to Abbott and Cheatley in an effort to protect her teammate Erinne Willock's third place overall. Powers attacked with five kilometres to go to solidify a third place on the day and her second place in the overall.

"We have a super strong team," Powers said. "I am so happy to be here with a team and we raced hard and really tried to win the race. Mara put so much time into everyone on the first stage in Mogollon."