Bissell's Brochner wins Tour of the Gila Inner Loop road race

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The Bissell Development Team scored its first win of the 2014 National Race Calendar Thursday when Denmark's Nicholai Brochner edged Eric Young (Optum Pro Cycling) in a bunch sprint at the end of the stage 2 Inner Loop Road Race. Jamis-Hagens Berman's Daniel Jaramillo finished safely in the field to hang onto the race leader's jersey heading into Friday's 26km individual time trial.

In the women's race, Carmen Small, the Specialized-lululemon rider competing as a guest rider at the race with DNA Cycling, out-sprinted the select remnants of the field to take the win. Team Tibco's Joanne Kiesanowski and Lauren Stephens finished second and third, respectively. Mara Abbott (UnitedHealthcare) remains in the overall race lead.

The Inner Loop Road Race threw 1,762 meters of climbing at the riders over 122.6 km, but the long downhill run to the finish at Fort Bayard provided an opportunity for the fast finishers.

Brochner times sprint perfectly in upset win

Bissell's 20-year-old sprinter had been caught up in the stage 1 crash the day before, and he was motivated to make the most of his opportunity on Thursday. After Young jumped early to chase down Jamis-Hagens Berman's Eloy Teruel, who had attacked with about 500 meters to go, Brochner patiently waited to make his move into the headwind that was blowing down the finishing straight.

"I thought [UnitedHealthcare] was gonna do a long lead-out," Brochner said. "But I saw that Optum was really strong with about 2km to go, so I just got on that wheel and my teammates put me in position right behind them, so I just followed that and hoped I was strong."

Brochner, who finished sixth in the sprint finish at the Tour of Alberta final stage, was indeed strong enough to come past Young and then hold off the reigning US pro criterium champion when he made a second jump.

"Eric Young went a little too early," Brochner said. "He did a long sprint, and I just waited because I knew with the headwinds it was going to be super hard. So I waited until about 150 meters and then just gave it everything I had."

Young hung on for second, while Team SmartStop's Travis McCabe, who currently leads the NRC individual standings, came back from a mid-race crash to finish third.

A three-rider breakaway consisting of Danny Summerhill (UnitedHealthcare), Taylor Sheldon (5-hour Energy/Kenda) and Luis Lemus (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) were the day's main protagonists as they escaped the field just before the first KOM in Pinos Altos, about 18km into the stage.

The trio eventually built an ultimate gap of nearly five minutes, and with Summerhill starting the day just 2:07 down, he was briefly the leader on the road.

"It's not every day that I'm the leader on the road," the UnitedHealthcare rider said. "So that was pretty neat."

But Summerhill had bigger goals than simply being the virtual leader for a while. Although riding into the overall would have been a tall order, he hoped the group could stay away and contest the stage win.

"At one point I was told that [the breakaway] would last, just because the teams weren't interested in anybody up there, and I was just low enough at two minutes or so that it wasn't a huge deal," Summerhill said. "So I thought it could go."

But several teams were hoping for a sprint finish, and Optum threw Jesse Anthony into the chasing rotation to help Jamis. SmartStop also threw a rider into the rotation, and Hincapie Sportswear also took several pulls at the front. With help from other teams in the chase, the leaders' gap soon started to plummet. The trio got a bit of help when two riders bridged up to the group, but the added horsepower couldn't hold off the charging field.

"When I really thought we might have a chance at the finish is when we got caught by two people who bridged up to us, and then we started to motor," Summerhill said. "I really thought we'd make it to the finish, but then we got caught with a few km to go. Bit of a bummer, but that's bike racing. Better luck next time."

With the final catch made about 5km from the line, Optum hit the front en masse to try and set up Young in the sprint. But the team's orange-and-black train got swarmed in a corner, and Young lost the wheel of lead-out man Alex Candelario. About that time Eloy Teruel (Jamis-Hagens Berman) jumped and got a small gap. Young hopped off the wheel of teammate Carter Jones and started his sprint, but it was Brochner who had the advantage at the line.

Small goes big in Fort Bayard

Small kicked up her sprint from a long way out in order to chase down UnitedHealthcare's Alison Powers, who had jumped with about 500 meters to go. After she passed Powers and found herself at the head of the race, she had few options but to put her head down and go for the line.

"It was really far out and I died about two times," Small said. "Alison went early, and it was kind of the thing where it was pretty spread out anyways coming in at 500 meters to go. There wasn't anyone doing a proper lead-out, so I just went after Alison because she is always a threat; she's so strong."

Despite fading as she approached the line, Small found enough strength to hold off Kiesanowski, who was closing fast.

"It was like 400 meters of sprinting," Small said. "I died at 200 meters and was like, 'OK, I can see the finish, you can do this, it's not much longer.' So I just went again, and I looked back and saw Jo [Kiesanowski] coming, so she was pretty close. It was a tough one, for sure."

The women's race started out fast and furious, with UnitedHealthcare setting a pace on the front that quickly ripped about half the field to shreds. The racing was aggressive, with attacks going off in fits and starts, but none of the escape attempts was able to gain anything more than a small gap before succumbing to the UnitedHealthcare chase.

Abbott said the relatively small UnitedHealthcare squad really impressed her with its effort to protect her overall race lead.

"We've only got five girls in the race, so we've got a smaller team," Abbott said. "But then you look at we had such a select group coming into the finish, and all of us were there. And that's after all of them working so hard all day long. So that's really, really special, and I feel really proud to be a part of it."

Abbott put in some work herself toward the end of the stage, chasing down a solo rider to bring the group back together and allow Powers to contest the sprint. But Powers' early move cost her at the finish, where she placed 18thon the stage. Nevertheless, Abbott and team director Rachel Heal were happy with the final outcome.

"Alison's always dangerous in the sprint," Abbott said. "But our main goal was to keep the red [leader's] jersey, and we did that. If we could get a stage win it was bonus. But we were working for the jersey, and we still have it, so we're pretty happy."

Small, who said she was guest riding at the race to help with logistics and also to help mentor some of the DNA team's young riders, was obviously happy with her day's work as well. But the US national time trial champion said she wasn't placing any bets on her performance in Friday's 26km race of truth.

"I kind of raced hard today," she said. "DNA raced their bikes today. No one wanted to do anything, but I'm here for training, and I'm not keen on sitting in. So we'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm pretty tired. I haven't been at altitude and I haven't been climbing all spring, so we'll see what happens. I'll give it a go."

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