Emma White wins Silver City criterium at Tour of the Gila

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Emma White (Rally Cycling) got her revenge Saturday on stage 2 winner Chloe Dygert (Twenty20-Sho Air) during the stage 4 Tour of the Gila criterium, taking the sprint win in front of Dygert's late charge. During the stage 2 bunch kick in Fort Bayard on Thursday, White had the early lead but wasn't able to hold off Dygert's come-from-behind effort at the line. On Saturday, a stellar lead out from Rally's Kirsti Lay set up White perfectly at the front of the field on the slightly uphill drag to the line.

Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare) was able to add another second to her general classification advantage over Rally's Sara Poidevin with a bonus on the final sprint of the day. 

White's win reprises her victory from last year on the same stage, and it was sweet revenge for the Thursday' loss to Dygert.

"We planned the sprint a little differently today than the other day," White told Cyclingnews. "I started a bit later and I was able to hold her off, but if the finish was too much further she might have gotten me." 

Lay guided White to the front through the final corner and up the initial rise to the finish, then White took over from there.

"It's so important to have teammates working behind you and in front of you on a race like this," White said. "I couldn't have done it without them."

A disappointed Dygert told Cyclingnews she botched the final corner and had to start from too far back to get past White.

"I didn't play it smart into that final turn, and so my head wasn't in it for the final sprint," Dygert said. "I knew she was going to get it, but there's always another day tomorrow."

Rally was also thinking about 'tomorrow' during the stage, with the team's top priority aimed at shaving seconds off Hall's seven-second lead over Poidevin. In the end, Hall was able to add a second.

"It's just one race, so all in all we're here to work for GC," White said. "Sara started the day seven seconds behind Katie Hall, so throughout the race we were trying to get those seconds back. We didn't quite do it, but we have one more day to try and get those." 

Sunday's Gila Monster stage will be the final opportunity for Rally to unseat Hall, and White said she expects a good battle.

"We have a lot of work to do tomorrow, but it finishes on a big climb, so it's kind of a flashback of Wednesday's race that finished on a big climb and Sara and Katie had a big battle, so I think it will come down to a battle between those two," White said. "We're going to do what we can to try and help Sara out."

How it unfolded

The four-corner downtown Silver City criterium course is 1.74km long and featured a  short climb on the backside that gained 24.4 metres of elevation each time around. Attacks flew fast and furiously up the hill over the 25-lap race, but no move could gain any traction over the tightly controlled field. Bonus seconds of three, two and one second were up for grabs at three intermediate sprints.

White opened her account on the first intermediate sprint at 18 laps to go, crossing the line ahead of UnitedHealthcare's Diana Peñuela and teammate Lay. White and Peñuela grabbed first and second on the second intermediate sprint at 12 to go, with UnitedHealthcare's Lauren Hall grabbing the final spot.

In the final intermediate sprint with six laps to go, White once agin took top honours and the five-second time bonus, but this time Katie Hall grabbed second and Poidevin third. From there it was a quick dash to the finish, where White came out of the final corner in the driver's seat and made her way up the right-hand side of the road. Dygert charged hard along the barriers on the right side of the road but wasn't able to get back on terms with her former US national team teammate.

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