Abbott takes Tour of the Gila overall

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Mara Abbott (Amy D Foundation) confirmed her reputation as best climber in the country by taking out her fourth consecutive victory on the final stage of the Tour of the Gila, wrapping up her sixth career overall win.

Abbott stormed away on the final ascent, winning the stage over Scotti Lechuga (Hagens Berman-Supermint) and Mindy McCutcheon (Canyon). She extended her winning advantage in the general classification over Kristin Armstrong (Twenty 16-RideBiker), while Rally Cycling's Jasmin Glaesser gained just enough time in the finish to push Brianna Walle (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) off the podium and take third.

It was the same scenario on the stage that played out as prior years, Abbott attacking at the base of the climb, and the queen of the mountains contender Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare) chasing behind. But this time Abbott faced a particularly spirited chase from a 10-rider chasing group that conspired to run down Hall with 500m to go and sprint to the line startlingly close, just 21 seconds behind Abbott.

"The finish was actually pretty interesting, because the last they told me was that there was one chaser," Abbott said. "So when I saw them cross the finish line as a big group, that's a pretty different thing to be chasing you than one person. That made me feel a bit relieved when I saw that."

Abbott's win denied Hall the final polka dot jersey, while Glaesser reversed last year's heartbreak when she was in Walle's position, moving onto the podium by a single second.

"It was so close last year. I came into this day third last year and dropped down to fourth, so it's great to reverse that this year," Glaesser said. "It was really a team effort today. My team set me up perfectly, they made sure I came to the finish as fresh as possible. They gave me a good lead-out into the base of the climb and then I had Sara [Poidevin] making sure Katie Hall didn't escape. Today is really a credit to how strong our team is. It was great having them there in the front group with me and be able to control the gap."

Lechuga was greeted by her husband and two children at the finish, and was pleased to get on the stage podium on Mother's Day, but it was mixed with a touch of disappointment for what might have been.

"We didn't really know how close we were to Mara because we didn't get accurate time gaps, which was a shame," Lechuga said. "When we saw Katie, it was full on and we went for the sprint. I wish we would have known how much we were making up, but it's OK it happens."

McCutcheon was thrilled to claim her first stage podium in a UCI race on her first attempt. "I just tried to hang with the main pack when we hit the bottom of big climb, and then just held on tight. The last 2km came up really fast through those descents, and all of a sudden it was 500m to go, and I just hammered and ended up third, I have no idea how. It feels amazing, this is my UCI race."

Armstrong held onto her second place overall, despite having her team decimated because of crashes. Alison Jackson was the team's third abandon on the final stage, leaving just two riders to help Armstrong keep her podium position.

"I'm never satisfied with second, but with as much bad luck as we had with the team early on, I was happy to finish right next to Mara," Armstrong said. "I was really happy to take the win on the time trial, and I think we raced really well with who we had left. I felt like Leah came up and helped out quite a bit today, and Jen Tetrick protected me in the wind. Unfortunately Alison Jackson had to pull out because of an earlier injury. We were tough this week, and so were all the other teams.

"Today was a hard day, I think there were a lot of teams out there going for third place (GC), so Tibco tried to get away, UHC with Linda (Villumsen) and you had Rally - I think everyone was very motivated to not let us go up the road today. There was a lot of attacking, and a lot of crosswinds. Tibco put it in the gutter at one point which is really hard. We just kept on neutralising one another.

"I think that Mara rode incredible this week. It showed that she is a world class climber, and always will be."

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