Tour of the Gila: Lauren Stephens wins Mogollon climb opener for women

Lauren Stephens (Cynisca Cycling) climbed to a solo victory on the opening day of Tour of the Gila and took the first leader’s jersey for the UCI women’s category. Nadia Gontova (DNA Pro Cycling), the recent winner of the Redlands Bicycle Classic, finished second, just nine seconds back. Marcela Prieto (Steve Tilford Foundation) secured third, 1:01 off the pace.

The trio of riders had formed the breakaway of the day on Stage 1 Mogollon Road Race p/b Grant County and with half of the 71 miles (114km) covered had pushed ahead of the peloton by as much as 12:50.

The reigning Pan-American road champion rode with Gontova on the lower, narrow slopes of the 3.8-mile category Mogollon climb and attacked as the steepest pitches of 19%. Gontova could not match the acceleration, leaving Stephens to ride away for the win.

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It was Stephens’ fifth appearance at the UCI 2.2 stage race in New Mexico, her top finish in 2015 with third overall and she has never finished outside seventh.

“I knew today that I didn’t want to lose time. My first goal was to stay with Nadia [Gontova]. I had seen how well she had done a couple weeks ago at Redlands," Stephens said. “I’ve trained with her some and know how strong she is. I told myself that if I was feeling good I would attack in the last couple kilometres.

“Nadia attacked as soon as we started the last bit of the climb. I was able to stay with her. I knew I was accomplishing my first goal and it was just icing on the cake to be able to put a little bit of time into Nadia today.”

With the victory, Stephens took the first red leader’s jersey and also the first Queen of the Mountain jersey. Gontova scored the Best Young Rider classification as a consolation prize to her hard work on the climb.

“I knew my best chance on this climb was to go pretty early. I know Lauren has a good kick,” Gontova said at the finish. “Maybe I was a little impatient but at that point, I knew my only hope was to keep the pace high and hope that I could crack her. 

"She was really strong on the day and ended up having a really strong attack at the end. I just couldn’t follow and she rode away. “

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