Grand awarded stage after sprint protest

Controversy clouded the men's finish during stage 2 of Silver City's Tour of the Gila after officials upheld a protest by BMC Development Team's Arnaud Grand against UnitedHealthcare's Jonny Clarke for irregular sprinting when the breakaway group of three they were in barely held off the quickly closing field.

Judges awarded the win to Grand and relegated Clarke to second. Max Jenkins [5-hour Energy/Kenda], the remaining breakaway rider, finished third, just three seconds ahead of the field. Janier Acevedo [Jamis-Hagens Berman] finished safely in the field following 122 kilometers of racing and held onto his leader's jersey.

In the women's race, Janel Holcomb took the win after dropping breakaway companion Chantal Blaak and soloing across the line. Shelley Olds won a sprint from a small chase group for second, while Holcomb's teammate Jade Wilcoxson grabbed third. Stage 1 winner Mara Abbott [Exergy-Twenty16] will continue in the leader's jersey for Friday's time trial.

Trio sticks long breakaway in men's race

After riding nearly 100 kilometers off the front, the trio of escapees in the men's race held onto just a handful of seconds as they turned toward the finish at Fort Bayard, an historic site that was home of the famed Buffalo Soldiers before becoming a VA hospital after World War I.

Clarke and Arnaud quickly separated from Jenkins when Clarke jumped about 200 meters from the line. The UnitedHealthcare rider gained an initial gap, but Arnaud, a 22-year-old Swiss rider, clung to his wheel and tried to jump past Clarke on the right. Clarke deviated his line toward the barriers, causing Arnaud to brake and throw up his hands in frustration. The Swiss rider jumped again, but Clarke continued to close the space between himself and the barriers.

"He just hooked me on the barrier three times," Arnaud said. "First I started on the right, and he just changed completely, so I had to brake, then I went again and tried to pass, but he blocked me. So I think that's enough that I should win. I think I was much faster than him, and it was not really fair play for him to do it."

Adrien Lévesque, president of the race commissaires' panel, said Clarke "swerved" in front of Arnaud, causing the relegation.

"Essentially the rider number 22, in what we called an irregular sprint, swerved from one side of the road to the next, obstructing the other rider," Lévesque said. "So we relegated him to last in his group, which happened to be between the two, so he fell into second place."

Clarke was clearly disappointed in the commisaires' decision, but he said he accepted the judges' decision and he was happy with the day's result.

"I chose my line to move to the right, and I didn't think he was on my right, so I thought I could take my own line, but I guess I pinched him in the barriers," Clarke said. "It's just cycling. I haven't won a race for six years and I finally get one and I'm back in second. But I want to take nothing away from the guys who were with me. Max Jenkins and the BMC guy. They were sensational, so congratulations to him."

Jenkins, who may have had the best view of the sprint between Arnaud and Clarke, wouldn't comment on what he thought should be the proper outcome, but he did say that Arnaud likely would have one had Clarke held his line.

"Jonny [Clarke] was probably going to get beat," Jenkins said before the officials issued their ruling. "So we'll see what the judges decide in the end. He definitely moved over, but the judges have to make that decision."

The controversial sprint came after a long day in the saddle for the breakaway riders, who initially peeled away from the group with Jamis-Hagens Berman's Jamey Driscoll after the first KOM sprint, about 28 kilometers into the stage. The escapees built an ultimate gap of four minutes before Jamis director Sebas Alexandre called Driscoll back into the field to help with the chase for his teammate and race leader Acevedo. Driscoll pulled off the road, stopped and waited for the bunch to catch up.

"The idea for the week is to work for Acevdeo," Alexandre said. "So that is the plan and that is what we did. We came here to work for Acevedo. That was the goal for the week, and it doesn't seem like any other team was interested in a field sprint."

Starting the day 1:57 down on Acevedo, Clarke was the best positioned GC rider in the breakaway. Jamis was obviously not interested in setting up a field sprint for fastman J.J. Haedo, and with no other team coming to the front to take over and reel the escapees back, the race leader's team was happy to let the trio finish a handful of seconds ahead. Clarke thought he had benefited from the race tactics going on behind, but in the end things just didn't go his way.

"I believe I rode a great bike race," Clarke said. "It could have gone either way, and this time I lost out. This is a hard sport."

Holcomb delivers for Optum

After racing aggressively on stage 1 but coming up empty at the finish, Optum was looking for a little redemption on Thursday, and Holcomb delivered with her solo win.

"Yesterday was just miserable," Holcomb said. "We rode so well together, we have such a good group, and we didn't have the results to show for it yesterday, and that's always disappointing and frustrating.

"We really wanted to race aggressively yesterday," Holcomb continued. "We knew we had to try something. We didn't want to go to the bottom of Mogollen with one of the best climbers in the world. So we tried what we could and we didn't get the results to show for it, but today we're happy."

The 2011 NRC individual champion was obviously determined to get a result on stage 2. She attacked the group solo and gained a small gap after the first QOM spot but faded back into the group briefly before setting out again with TIBCO-To the Top's Blaak on what turned out to be the winning move.

The duo worked well together and built an ultimate gap of 3:30 before counter attacks and the chasers that followed started cutting into her lead. TIBCO's Claudia Haeusler tried several times to bridge, but Now & Novartis for MS and Exergy-Twenty16's Andrea Dvorak ended the effort, as they did with almost all of the attempts to get away from the field.

The attacks and counters behind whittled Holcomb's lead down to 1:55 with nine kilometers remaining, but she lost just 15 seconds over the next six kilometers and still had a gap of 1:40 with three kilometres to go. A chase group of four formed behind her, including Optum teammate Jade Wilcoxson, Now's Robin Farina and TIBCO's Shelley Olds and Joanne Kiesanowski.

"It was a tough day to be off the front today; it was pretty windy," Olds said of her teammate Blaak's courageous but ultimately disappointing effort off the front. "Unfortunately Exergy-Twenty16 and NOW got together and chased everything. In the final miles Mara [Abbott] and Alison [Powers] had teammates to help close anything. We showed a lot of strength today. We were really aggressive, which is what we wanted to do."

The chasing quartet closed to within 48 seconds by the finish, but a tearfully-happy Holcomb, who started the day 4:55 behind race leader Abbott, crossed the line with plenty of time for an emotional victory salute.

Olds earned the payoff for TIBCO's efforts in the sprint for second. Wilcoxson jumped early and got an advantage, but Olds was able to track her down and pass her for second at the line. Wilcoxson hung on for third, while Farina and then Kiesanoswki rounded out the top five. Optum's Lauren Hall won the field sprint for sixth.

"Jo killed it for me in the last 3k, which allowed me to save it for the sprint," Olds said of her teammate Kiesanowski. "I did not want to let Jo down, so I chased Jade and was able to go around her on the line. All in all it was really hard day for everyone. We hold on to the U26 jersey and we are happy about that. We are also happy with the podium and we will try again."

Abbott's and Dvorak's efforts paid off in the end as well, maintaining Abbott's 1:58 lead over NOW's Kathryn Donovan and her own Exergy teammate Kristin McGrath. Abbott said she was ready for Friday's individual time trial and did not fear the infamous Gila winds.

"I'll just float along on that stuff," Abbott said. "I'll just sail on my disk like the puff of a dandelion."

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