Häusler wins final stage of Exergy Tour

Image 1 of 32

Specialized-lululemon stamped its final dominance on the Exergy Tour Monday by winning all of the classifications except best young rider. Evelyn Stevens rode into a two-rider breakaway near the end of the last stage and gained enough time to take the overall victory from teammate Amber Neben, while Claudia Häusler (GreenEdge-AIS) won the two-up sprint for the stage win.

Jasmin Glaesser (Canadian National Team) won the field sprint from a group of 12 survivors for third place, securing her claim to the best young rider jersey.

Specialized-lululemon swept the overall classification podium as well, putting Stevens and Neben in the top two spots and Clara Hughes in third. Stevens also earned enough QOM points during the stage to win back the mountains classification from Fabiana Luperini (Faren Honda), while Ina-Yoko Teutenberg took home the points classification.

"I think we have a really special thing here on Team Specialized-lululemon," Stevens said shortly after spraying the large podium crowd with her victory champagne. "I think it's because it almost fell apart last year that we recognized how special it was."

The inaugural Exergy Tour's final stage proved to be the most difficult and exciting day of racing as the route took riders out of a residential neighborhood in Boise to a circuit on the edge of town for three laps and then a final run back to the start/finish. The undulating 75km course had very little flat ground and threw 1,125 meters of climbing at the 69-rider peloton, which had been slowly whittled down over the previous four days of racing. The weather also cooperated after several days of precipitation and cooler temperatures, heating up into the 80s by the end of the day's racing.

Despite Sunday's stage having been given the "queen stage" label, only 34 riders finished Monday's test within the time limit, and 24 riders abandoned the race completely. The day got off to a rough start as a handful of riders got tangled up about 50 meters into the race. Optum Pro Cycling-Kelly Benefit Strategies, which was the only team to start the day with it's full contingent of eight, was probably hit hardest by the crash when two of the team's riders hit the tarmac just seconds into the race.

Optum's Janel Holcomb, arguably the most aggressive rider in the previous day's stage, was unable to continue after suffering possibly bruised ribs. Her teammate Courtney Lowe quickly mounted a new bike but was unable to catch back onto the peloton, which had screamed out of the starting blocks toward the first QOM of the day at 7.5km.

"I think it was Exergy that started it off, and they started it off fast," Stevens said. "I was like, 'Oh, my goodness.' Every team here raced their bikes, and that's what was exciting from the gun."

Stevens also went from the gun and took maximum mountain category points on the first climb of the day, finishing ahead of Luperini and Tibco-To the Top's Megan Guarnier. The three riders used their QOM effort to peel off the field and settle in to a three-rider breakaway as they descended down off the climb.

A chasing group of about 10-14 riders left the rest of the field behind as Now and Novartis for MS and other teams that missed the move lined up their riders on the front and started bringing the leaders back, never allowing the dangerous trio to get more than a 10-second advantage.

The chase quickly reabsorbed the first breakaway, prompting ExergyTwenty12's Taylor Wiles, who started the day sixth in the best young rider competition, to jump away in an attempt earn the white jersey by the end of the stage. Wiles' move also provided Hughes with a springboard to escape the small lead group, and the former Olympian and world champion added huge firepower to the escape.

"It was cool for me being off the front because I knew I could just pour everything into that breakaway," Hughes said. "And if it didn't succeed, and we got caught, I knew that Amber [Neben] and Evie [Stevens] were just sitting, waiting to pounce. So it was a perfect situation."

With Hughes supplying much of the horsepower for the escapees, the duo built an ultimate gap of 1:10 before more chasing from Tibco, Alison Powers (Now and Novartis for MS) and the Canadian National Team, which was riding to protect Glaesser's best young rider jersey, started cutting into the breakaway's advantage. The gap went up and down as Hughes continued to defy the chase and pour on more power, leaving teammate Stevens wondering what was going on up the road.

"There were points where I was suffering going up some of the climbs, and Clara was putting time into us," Stevens said. "I thought, 'Wow, I think she might have a motor on her bike today."

But Hughes' motor eventually ran out of gas after Wiles fell off the Canadian's pace and faded back to the first chase group. Next it was Hughes' turn to surrender about 60km into the race. That's when Stevens initiated the next step of the day's plan, launching a counter attack that only Häusler could match. Although the two riders had separate agendas, they rolled well together, building a one-minute gap they carried to the short run back to the finish at Boise's Hyde Park.

The two leaders had a 1km advantage over the chase with just one 1km remaining, and Stevens had the overall win all but locked up. Häusler's superior finishing kick won the day, but Stevens' effort earned her the first-ever Exergy Tour overall crown. It was a solid cycling strategy played to perfection.

"We wanted to show Boise, Idaho, what women's racing is like, and we wanted to put on a show," Stevens said. "We had the yellow and we had such strength here, so we just wanted to make it aggressive. That was pretty much the plan."

Hughes' efforts earned the day's prize for most aggressive rider, but the real reward came in watching her young teammate crowned as the race's first champion, and then taking the stage with her entire Specialized squad as winners of the overall team competition.

"We have our strength in numbers, and we actually work together really well," Hughes said. "And I'm really proud of the way we raced this whole tour."

Full Results