Montiel, Abbott strike first at Tour of the Gila

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Colombian Rafael Montiel (Orgullo Antioqueno) stunned the peloton in the opening stage of the Tour of the Gila, bridging across to the day's breakaway and riding through them on the final ascent climb in Mogollon to win ahead of Optum's Guillaume Boivin. Montiel's teammate Giraldo Ortega Ramirez came in third after the field caught the remnants of the breakaway mid-way up the climb.

In the women's race, Mara Abbott took the first step toward her fifth overall victory in the Tour of the Gila, riding away on the finishing climb in Mogollon to win the stage by half a minute over of Abby Mickey (Unitedhealthcare) and Jasmin Glaesser (Optum Pro Cycling).

The 33 year old Montiel is making only his second appearance in the US, having competed in the Tour of Utah and USA Pro Challenge in 2011, but today's stage victory was his first success here, and he aims to hold onto the red leader's jersey until the very end.

"I felt really motivated to win the stage today. I was trying to control myself to not burn up before the climb. I was very confident for the climb," Montiel said.

The Orgullo team missed the day's breakaway, but profited from a lack of cooperation amongst the major teams, none of whom wanted to haul 2013 Vuelta a España winner Chris Horner (Airgas-Safeway) to the line. While the peloton played chicken with their overall ambitions, Orgullo patiently waited. Rather than contribute to the chase, they played possum and waited until the Jamis-Hagens Berman and Jelly Belly teams had brought the gap down before attempting to bridge across. Once the final climb was in sight, it was time for Montiel to pounce.

"In the beginning, I thought the breakaway wouldn't work because it was only 45 seconds, but it very quickly went to 2 minutes, then four, then six," Montiel said. "I decided to attack with some other guys. We kept the breakaway at about two minutes. Finally I was able to close the gap. It was a really hard stage. I couldn't breathe at the end."

Montiel bridged across to the remnants of the breakaway, who were left behind when Guillaume Boivin (Optum Pro Cycling) and Martin Kohler (Drapac) attacked, and then big-ringed the final pitch, blowing past the dropped Kohler and Boivin before soloing to victory.

Boivin, a sprinter by nature, was never meant to be his team's man for the uphill finish, but when he found himself in the breakaway with a gap ballooning up over 15 minutes, he knew he'd have to try and salvage the day for his team. He came impressively close for a rider who isn't known for going uphill.

"He's just a better climber, that's all you can say about it," Boivin said of Montiel. "I felt pretty good, because I knew the field wasn't going to be too far behind. I just tempo'd it."

Boivin and Kohler were part of an early breakaway with John Murphy (Unitedhealthcare), Eric Slack (IRT Racing), Ansel Dickey (California Giant Berry/Specialized), Anthony Canevari (Canyon Bicycles), Zack Noonan (Intermountain Livewell), and Ian Holt (Altovelo-Seasucker). While the peloton gave them plenty of lead in the first half of the stage, the cooperation in the breakaway dissolved in the second half, helping reduce the double-digit gap.

"We had two very good climbers behind, so I didn't want to do too much," Boivin said. "It came down pretty quick at the end, in the second half we didn't ride very hard at all. None of the teams were very happy with the break, because we didn't have many climbers in there. It was a really weird bike race."

The frustration was palpable after the finish, as riders tried to find alternatives to curse words to describe the day's events. Weird was as mild as it got.

"It was a really complicated race," Jamis-Hagens Berman's Ben Jacques-Maynes said. "It was the earliest the breakaway has gone, and guys were sitting and waiting for someone to pull. Our plan was to pull late, and by the time we wanted to get to the front, the gap was 11 minutes. We started pulling, and I went to ask for help and nobody wanted to ride. They kept saying the race was over. It's the first day of a UCI race - how is that over?"

Horner defended his decision not to contribute, saying he is still suffering from lung problems that cropped up during last year's Tour de France, and isn't at his best. "Everyone was saying, Chris you have to put someone on the front, and I said no, I can't win," Horner told Cyclingnews. "The break gained that time because they said if you don't ride, we won't ride. But I'm not going to put my guys on the front to get fifth. Clearly they're going to out time-trial me, too, so clearly if they want to win they're going to have to ride the front."

Jacques-Maynes marshaled his team, and together with Jelly Belly-Maxxis, they brought the gap down, and while Jamis-Hagens Berman didn't win, they put Daniel Jaramillo into the best young rider's jersey. "Fortunately my team is incredibly strong - we didn't win the race, but we did the exact job we came here to do which was to put Daniel Jaramillo as far up the hill as possible. We'll see how the rest of the week shakes out," Jacques-Maynes said. "Hopefully when the GC shakes out a bit, the race will be a bit more defined. I can't make them race their bikes, I can only control my team and how we race. We raced positively and directly according to our plans. I can't complain anything about my guys, they rode their hearts out."

Jaramillo hopes to show himself here and in the Tour of California, where he aims to earn a contract with a major team. As a Colombian, he wasn't too upset to see his fellow countryman win the stage, but intends to try to beat them nonetheless.

"This team from Antioquia is very strong, and I have an eye on Horner, too, and maybe Optum," Jaramillo said. "I'm very happy to see that they're inviting Colombian teams, especially because they're well known for being good in the mountains. Other riders always show respect to the Coloimbians in the climbs."

Montiel also took the lead in the mountains classification, while Cal-Giant's Dickey claimed the sprint jersey on the day. "The team plan was for me or another teammate to get in the early break. If we were in the break, we'd go for the sprints, because it's nice to get a jersey," Dickey said. "I won the first sprint, but coming into the second one but I went a little too early and the Canyon rider got me by half a foot and we were tied on points. So I knew whoever finished first on the stage would have the jersey. I saved some energy for the climb, then went as hard as I could. We got caught by the field 1.5km from the finish but I beat (Canevari) and got the jersey."

Amy D Foundation composite team leads to victory for Abbott

Riding for the composite Amy D Foundation team, Abbott praised the work of her squad, which is directed by retired racer Meredith Miller. "People often discount a composite team, but if you look at the quality of the riders on our team - there are riders who are known and who are unknown - it's an amazing honour to ride for a composite team that isn't bound by contracts but will ride together toward a common goal like today," Abbott said. "They rode really well. They worked their asses off to deliver me to the final climb safely, and I couldn't have asked for more."

Abbott had a nasty crash in the Flèche Wallonne world cup last week, but suffered only road rash, which she had to protect from the back-slapping congratulations post-stage. She recovered in time to defend her title here, but admitted she suffered. "The truth is, if you feel good, you're probably going too slow, but this is the kind of racing I love. It makes me happy to win on the Mogollon again."

Abbott has bounced back and forth from racing domestically, where she won the Redlands Classic, and competing in the European races with her trade team Wiggle-Honda, but she was glad to be able to make it back to New Mexico to defend. "It wasn't exactly what I meant to do, but I've gotten to do an amazing line up of races this year, so I'm super happy I've gotten back to the Gila again."

The opening stage of the first UCI-classified edition of the women's Tour of the Gila left Silver City into a cool, pleasant morning with no wind to make the riders' lives difficult. The only challenge of the day was how to unseat Mara Abbott on a day that finished on her favourite terrain: a 10km climb to the line. The Optum and Tibco teams were keen to form a breakaway and laid down continual attacks. The first rider to hit out was Tibco's Alizee Brien, who gained 15 seconds in her move within the first 10km, but it was far too soon and the slightly downhill road too fast for her to stay clear.

Alison Jackson (Twenty 16) won the first intermediate sprint over Optum's Leah Kirchmann and Brianna Walle, before another promising move went off the front at the feed zone, with Kathrin Hammes (Tibco), Katie Hall (Unitedhealthcare), Kirchmann, Kaitlin Antonneau (Twenty 16), Jessenia Meneses (ITAU Shimano Ladies Power Team), and A Countouriotis (Visit Dallas) gaining 25 seconds. They had the misfortune, however, of being marked by Julie Emmerman from Abbott's Amy D Foundation team, and the breakaway was slowly reeled in for Abbott.

Jasmin Glaesser (Optum) won the second sprint after the breakaway was caught, and then Jackson was on the attack, bringing along Walle and being chased by eight riders, including Amy D's Katie Donovan. Needless to say, the move did not stick.

Kirchmann tried to get another move going, with help from Twenty 16's Amber Gaffney, but the pair never got far. Several crashes disrupted the field as they approached 25km to go, and the impetus to attack had gone out of the field. It was now a matter of saving energy and hoping to match Abbott on the final climb.

Abbott's Amy D Foundation team staged a full-on lead-out into the base of the climb, which starts out steep and then flattens in the middle before kicking up again to the finish. With Abbott well positioned, the team stepped off the gas, and UnitedHealthcare, Optum, DNA Cycling, and Tibco were all well represented on the front row. Tibco took over the pace making on the flat section, looking to protect Joe Martin winner Lauren Stephens, before Optum amassed at the front to lead into the second steep section.

But nobody could stop Abbott when the road kicked up to its steepest pitch. She powered away with Flavia Oliveria (Visit Dallas), with UHC's Abby Mickey just not able to hold the pace. Mickey caught the pair as the pitch eased near the final kilometer, and more riders chased back from behind. "We all kind of faffed around on the flat part," Mickey said. "On the second steep pitch, Mara attacked. She and Flavia went up the road, but Mara dropped Flavia. I just put my head down, and caught and dropped Flavia, then went as hard as I could and ended up second.

"I was third last year, so it's an improvement, and that's important to me. I couldn't have done it without my team, and my coach, Alison Powers. They believed in me, and it's nice to be able to deliver for them."

Glaesser's Optum team tried its best to distance Abbott before the final climb, but when that failed, were fairly powerless to prevent the inevitable. "Mara Abbott is such an amazing climber, when she goes you have to hedge your bets and hope to do your own pace and limit the losses. I found a really good rhythm and rode within myself. It's the best I've ever finished so it's good."

"We didn't want to come to the bottom of the climb with Mara, we wanted to race aggressively and not just watch her take the climb, but I think it takes more than one team, and there weren't too many that wanted to play along."

Glaesser found enough left in her legs to catch and kick past Oliveria, who was frustrated to finish fourth again and miss the stage podium, and said she picked up a cold after the Joe Martin stage race. "We raced really aggressively in Joe Martin, and I've never done this race block. I'm kind of disappointed to be passed at the line, but it was a great race," she said.

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