Hall and Reijnen sprint to Silver City victory

Image 1 of 33

Lauren Hall and Kiel Reijnen sprinted to wins Saturday at Silver City's Tour of the Gila downtown criterium in a pair of one-two finishes for the Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies women's team and the UnitedHealthcare Pro Continental men's team.

Joelle Numainville provided a perfect leadout for Hall after 25 laps of racing on the 1.74 km course that included 24.4 meters of climbing per lap. The Canadian rider then followed Hall across the line for second ahead of TIBCO's Shelley Olds.

After his team rode the front for the final third of the race to bring back a two-rider breakaway, Reijnen was first out of the final corner with teammate Luke Keough tucked tightly on his wheel. The Two UnitedHealthcare riders opened a small gap coming out of the turn and powered across the line for the second one-two finish of the night. Eric Young of the Optum men's team took third.

Hall Repays Director's Faith With Win

Hall started the day with a small case of nerves after team director Rachel Heal told her the team would be working to set her up in the sprint, but the new Optum recruit also knew she could deliver.

“Rachel has so much faith in me,” a jubilant Hall said after the race. “She looked at me this morning and said, 'You're our sprinter,' and all of the sudden I got really nervous but also excited because I know I've got it, and she has all the faith.”

Inconsistent winds and plenty of climbing deterred any lengthy breakaways in the women's race. Groups of up to four and five riders were able to power off the front over the climbs on the backside of the four-corner rectangular course, but none of the escape attempts was able to gain more than a handful of seconds before the field closed them down.

“I think ultimately that's why nothing stayed away,” Powers said. “Because the wind just made it too hard to work by yourself and too easy for everyone sitting on.”

The Now & Novartis for MS team of Alison Powers, who started the day second overall just 1:09 behind race leader Mara Abbott (Exergy-twenty16) was especially active, hoping to boost Powers' chances for the overall by gaining intermediate time bonuses and a 10-second boost for the finish.

But the effort only cut two seconds off Abbott's overall advantage after Optum snagged the top two spots and Olds cleaned up the podium and the rest of the remaining bonus seconds. With the field all together for the final lap, Optum sent Numainville up the road to draw out the sprinters, with Hall on her wheel ready to pounce when they came out of turn for the long, slightly uphill finish.

“And it worked out, and we went one-two,” Hall said. “It was amazing. The first thing after I celebrated I looked back and was like, 'There you are, yay.'”

TIBCO sprinter Shelley Olds crossed the line next, earning the green points jersey for her efforts in the finish and in the intermediate sprints, where she won two of three. But the jersey wasn't enough to counter Olds' disappointment in not coming away with the win.

“I was aware of the points, but the goal today was the stage win,” Olds said. “The second goal was the points jersey. For me all of the sprints are training for me. As a team we are disappointed, that’s all I can say, is that we wanted a better performance from the whole team.”

Powers ended up fifth, but her efforts in the intermediate sprints peeled away two seconds from Abbott's overall lead. It wasn't much payoff for the day's work, but Powers said every little bit will count when the race hits the final Gila Monster stage on Sunday.

“You never know,” she said. “Two seconds is two seconds.”

UHC Continues Criterium Dominance

The men's race played out much differently than the women's but produced the same result. After a brief delay because of a suspicious unattended package found near the course, the men set out for their 40-lap contest under slightly less windy conditions.

The change in elements promoted breakaway attempts, all of which were short-lived until Bissell's Julien Kyer and Jelly Belly's Ricardo Van der Velde sneaked off the front just before halfway through 40-lap race.

“It seemed like a good idea to tag some moves,” Kyer said. “So I followed a wheel across and it was easy, and once they let Ricardo and I go I thought, 'Sweet we can ride and take up some of the time bonuses to keep Chris [Baldwin] safe there.' It was a good day. It was the first time I've ever done this crit where I haven't had to battle or jostle or worry about crashes. So it was good.”

The Jamis-Hagens Berman team of race leader Janier Acevedo rode the front aggressively for much of the race but let the two escapees, who were both more than eight minutes down on GC, extend their lead to nearly a minute with 15 laps remaining. Despite the advantage they carried into the last half of the race, Kyer said he didn't really expect to stay away until the finish.

“I guess I was a little surprised that they let it get that big,” Kyer said. “But it was just two of us, and I knew that unless they messed something up really bad in the last five laps or so, that they'd just start motoring.”

But it wasn't Jamis doing the work at the front at that point. UnitedHealthcare, which has won every major US criterium the team has attended this year except one, took the race reins and stacked the entire team on the front to start pulling the breakaway back for the sprinters. It took 12 laps, but the vaunted “UHC Blue Train” made the capture with three laps remaining and settled in for the inevitable field sprint.

“We would have loved to have Jamis chase a little bit longer,” Reijnen said. “But they didn't need to have that break come back, and so they played the right card and forced us to go early, and I was just really happy that the team had the strength and depth to do the finishing three laps fast even though they'd been riding the front already.”

Several riders tried to sneak away in the closing circuits, but the speed by then made it impossible to make anything happen. Optum, hoping to set up 2011 national criterium champion Eric Young, came over the top of UnitedHealthcare's leadout as the bunch made its way up the finishing straight to take the bell, but the Blue Train bided it's time and gained back the lead near the end of the back straight.

“Rather than panicking, we waited because we had the strength and we took back the front at the top there at the third turn where it mattered,” Reijnen said.

Back in control, UnitedHealthcare's Jeff Louder led Reijnen and Keough into the final corner.

“We took the last corner one-two,” Reijnen said. “And before I even started sprinting we had a gap. So that was all team.”

Young, who ended up third after following Reijnen and Keough into the sharp, downhill left-hand turn, said things got pretty aggressive on the last lap, and that's the way he likes it.

“[Michael] Creed moved us up right past them really well,” he said. “And coming in the first corner, it got a little rough, Cando [Alex Candelario] and [Adrian] Hegyvary had a little contact so that broke everybody up a little bit.

“The two teams were kind of mixed up together,” he continued. “Then it was just fast the rest of the lap. Kiel [Reijnen] and Keough came through the last corner with me behind them. It was a little choppy, it was a little aggressive, but it's a crit; that's what you sign up for. But yes, that was a good race. The big day is tomorrow, so good luck to everybody then I guess.”

Results