Albrecht wins stage 2 at Tour of the Gila, Wiles takes race lead

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Lex Albrecht (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) won stage 2 at the Tour of the Gila Thursday, out-sprinting breakaway companions Tayler Wiles (UnitedHealthcare) and Scotti Lechuga (Hagens Berman Supermint) at the finish in Fort Bayard. It was Wiles who came away with the Gila's top prize, however, as she rode into the overall race lead. 

Albrecht joined Wiles and Lechuga, who had escaped before the final QOM of the day, to form a three-rider move that was able to hold off the reduced peloton after a tough day of racing in New Mexico.

“There were a lot of attacks in the final kilometres, which is normal for this stage," Albrecht said. "We were just working really hard, my Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank teammates and I, to cover all of them and I just happened to cover the final one that Tayler Wiles from UHC put in.

"I spent some of my last matches just to stick on and I followed them right to the last kilometres," she said.

In the finale, Albrecht waited patiently for Wiles to jump, which she did with about 500 metres remaining, then the Tibco rider slowly clawed her way back and passed the UnitedHealthcare rider at the line.

"I tried not to jump too hard because of the altitude; if you jump too hard out here you can explode, figuratively speaking, and so I knew I just had to drag her back," Albrecht said. "In the last few 50 metres or so, that’s when I really stomped on the pedals and just passed her for the finish."

Wiles was disappointed to miss out on the stage win after working hard in the break, but taking the leader's jersey more than made up for the stage result.

"Today was really good," she said. "We had our 'sprinty, climby' riders work their butts off pacing it up and over the climb. Katie Hall, Ruth Winder and I took turns attacking - my dad calls it the three-headed monster. That paid off today, because I eventually got off the front with Scotti Lechuga and Lex Albrecht. Lex sat on while Scotti and I worked really hard.

"In the last km it was slowing down and I was getting nervous. I went early, got a bit of a gap. Lex was fresh so she sprinted and came around me right at the line. But we still have the jerseys and raced really well so I'm happy about that."

How it unfolded

The women’s 120.7km Inner Loop Road Race started and finished at Fort Bayard, a former military hospital that is now a historic site.

Riders faced two intermediate sprints and three third-category climbs with 1,784 metres of elevation gain. Nonetheless, the long, relatively flat run to the finish meant the sprinters had their eyes on this day as one of the week’s few opportunities.

With the first intermediate sprint of the day coming just 10km into the day, the pace picked up immediately when the flag dropped on the short neutral out of Silver City.

Jaime Gilgen of Rise Racing took the three-second time bonus that went to the winner of the first sprint. The pack regrouped following the sprint as they headed toward the first QOM of the day at the top of the climb to Pinos Altos.

Visit Dallas DNA’s Melinda McCutcheon captured the top QOM points there, followed by race leader Katie Hall, her UnitedHealthcare teammate Wiles and Cylance’s Krista Doebel-Hickok.

Hall’s team continued to ride the front of the peloton, keeping things under control as they approached the second QOM of the day at Meadow Creek, where Hall crossed the line first ahead of McCutcheon, Wiles and Colavita-Bianchi’s Abbey Mickey.

The climbing combined with the pace set by UnitedHealthcare was taking a toll on the peloton, which had been winnowed down to just 30 riders. Gilgen claimed another three-second time bonus at the second sprint, where Hall’s teammates Wiles and Winder protected her lead by claiming the remaining bonuses on the line.

As the women kept ticking down the kilometres, a breakaway finally escaped the bunch when Lauretta Hansen (UnitedHealthcare), Julie Emmerman (Amy D Foundation) and Lindsay Bayer (Hagens Berman Supermint) slipped away initially before Gilgen bridged to form a lead group of four.

The leaders had a 55 second advantage going over Basrvof climb, but UnitedHealthcare was eager to bring them back and the reduced peloton was all together with 25Km remaining on the approach to the High Spot QOM.

Wiles then jumped away with Scotti Lechuga (Hagens Berman Supermint), gaining a small gap as they crested the climb and the final QOM, where Wiles took the top points.

The duo dangled in front of the peloton over the closing kilometres, tempting rider after rider to attack and make a bridge. Albrecht found success, and the trio built an advantage of 20 seconds with 3km remaining.

The three leaders were able to hold their gap to the entrance of Fort Bayard, where Wiles jumped first and Albrecht countered.

"It was pretty windy, so I wasn’t sure if it was going to stay away because the peloton was maintaining the gap and then brining it down a little bit, too," Albrecht said. "Then in the final 500 metres Tayler threw out her final attack, and I followed.

"I got my first victory here at Gila, so that’s pretty cool for me, especially on a stage like this that’s more for the sprinters."

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