Carpenter wins in Crested Butte

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Hincapie Sportswear Development Team rider Robin Carpenter took an impressive, but somewhat controversial solo win during stage 2 at the USA Pro Challenge in Crested Butte on Tuesday. After being in a breakaway for nearly 100km, Carpenter finished the stage six seconds ahead of chasers Alex Howes (Garmin-Sharp) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC), but a decision by the judges to neutralize the race with 9km to go muddied the results.

Howes started the day in second place overall and moved into the yellow jersey, now 11 seconds ahead of BMC's Ben Hermans and one more second ahead of his teammate Tejay van Garderen.

It was the Hincapie Sportswear team's most important victory to date, and follows some strong performances at the Tour of Utah, but it is certainly Carpenter's biggest win.

"It's huge for me, it's massive, the best win I've ever had in my short career," the 22-year-old said. "I'm really excited, and I can't believe it. I couldn't believe it until about 200m to go."

"Coming into the race, this is the best we could have hoped for as a team," Carpenter said. "A stage win is spectacular, especially because it's our first time in the race. We're a young program."

The 169.7km stage crested the category 2 climb up Kebler Pass with 16.7km to go, and the descent, which is only partially paved, was made treacherous by a sudden thunderstorm, which turned the dirt roads to mud. There were mixed communications at the top, with the field wondering if the race had been stopped, while Carpenter forged on ahead.

Carpenter had 45 seconds when the race was forcefully stopped with 9km to go, after they had passed the last dirt section. Arguments over the timing of the neutralisation and how it impacted the dynamics of the race ensued, and the race was re-started after five minutes or so. Even after the field was allowed to proceed, the racing took a while to get back underway.

"The neutralisation made for a funny run in," Howes said. "It was really disorganised, and even when we were riding flat out, we were talking amongst ourselves, 'are we doing this? Are we racing or not racing? Tejay hit out under one kilometer to go, and I followed his wheel, and I looked down and thought, 'the legs are doing it, this is going to work out'"

Howes regretting missing out on an opportunity for the stage victory - he was second on the opening stage, too, but said he was under team orders not to pull van Garderen away from Garmin-Sharp team leader Tom Danielson any farther than necessary. Although he gets to wear the race's leader's jersey, he said it is only temporary.

"We're riding for Tom Danielson tomorrow up Monarch. Basically the only thing that changes is I'll be in yellow in front of Tom, hopefully on the later stages of Monarch. I have no hopes and dreams of crushing the Vail time trial, since I can't time trial my way out of a wet paper bag. They'll do their thing tomorrow, and hopefully I will pass this onto Tommy D."

How it unfolded

The peloton appeared hesitant to let a breakaway ride away early in the 169.7km stage from Aspen to Crested Butte, and it took nearly two hours for a group of 12 to form off the front as the race approached the first classified climb of the day on McClure Pass.

In the group were Matej Mohoric (Cannondale), David de la Cruz (NetApp-Endura), Michael Torckler (Team SmartStop), Dion Smith, Joe Lewis and Robin Carpenter (Hincapie Sportswear), Kirk Carlsen and Luis Lemus (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), Jesse Anthony (Optum Pro Cycling), mountains classification leader Ben Jacques-Maynes (Jamis-Hagens Berman), Chris Jones (UnitedHealthcare) and Jai Crawford (Drapac).

Once established, the lead group powered up and over McClure Pass and had an ultimate gap of 4:10 on the descent. From there the advantage started to plummet, and the escapees' gap was down to 3:30 at the bottom of the second classified climb of the day, the gravel ascent of Kebler Pass.

Torckler, who won the mountains classification at the Tour of Utah last year, attacked his breakaway companions on the lowers slopes of the climb as the front group started coming apart. Several riders were able to get back on terms with the SmartStop riders, including Smith, Carpenter, Lewis, Luis Lemus, Anthony, Jacques-Maynes, Mohoric and de la Cruz.

But that group was short-lived also as the peloton, which had been paired down to about 40 riders, continued to whittle away at the advantage. Tockler, Jacques-Maynes, Mohoric and Anthony continued to power toward the second KOM of the day on Kebler Pass s some of the riders who dropped from the breakaway started to claw their way back. Among them was Carpenter, who eventually attacked the lead group and found himself solo off the front.

BMC lined itself up on the front of the chasing peloton which included the yellow jersey of race leader Kiel Reijnen. With just 23km remaining, Carpenter was solo off the front, followed by Jacques-Maynes and Lemus 40 seconds back.

As the riders climbed toward Kebler Pass, the rain that had been threatening all day started to fall in earnest, and the gravel descent off the pass turned into a greasy, slippery slide. Officials noted the condition and neutralized the race until riders were back on pavement with about 12km remaining.

Officials stopped Carpenter on the descent and let the slimmed-down peloton catch him. The race was restarted with Carpenter's gap of 45 seconds reestablished, setting up the finale on Mt. Crested Butte.

Carpenter built a lead of more than one minute as he headed toward the final climb to Crested Butte. The field climbed fast behind him but the young rider held on for the win in what turned out to be a nail-biting finale all the way to the line. Howes and van Garderen rode into the finish just six seconds behind Carpenter. Howes took second place and van Garderen third on the day.

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