Ryan Roth wins Winston-Salem Classic

Ryan Roth (Silber) took a hard fought win in punishingly hot and humid conditions on the final day of a week-long festival of racing in Winston-Salem.

Roth won by a wheel over Eric Marcotte (Jamis), and Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) from a five-man escape.

"The team has been super consistent all year," Roth said at the finish. "But we haven’t had a proper cross-the-line-first win, so that’s what we were shooting for."

The 14-lap race was dominated by a 10-man breakaway that escaped early, containing Marco Canola (UnitedHealthcare), Tom Soladay (Rally Cycling), Benjamin Perry (Silber), Orlando Garibay (Cylance-InCycle), Michael Sheehan (Jelly Belly), Chris Horner (Lupus), Jon Hornbeck and Andzs Flaksis (Holowesko-Citadel), Bruno Langlois (Garneau-Quebecor), Dan Craven (Cycling Academy Team).

The gap was kept in check almost single-handedly by Amore & Vita, but when it got close, attacks flew from the peloton, splintering the bunch into several groups.

With five laps to go, a large chase group made their way to the leaders, with Amore & Vita distanced. Attacks by Rally and UnitedHealthcare re-fractured the large front peloton, leaving a new breakaway up the road.

That group included Rally's Tom Zirbel and Evan Huffman, Marcotte, Langlois, Canola, Roth, and Rob Squire (Holowesko-Citadel) brought to just 20 seconds at two laps to go by Lupus, but their advantage would soon balloon to nearly a minute at the last feed zone.

"I tried to use as little as possible in the first part of the race and let my teammates carry that load for me," Roth said of his timely move to the front. "I didn’t feel great, but I told myself no one was feeling good in this kind of weather, so just deal with it, put it out of my mind and focus on the race."

Josh Berry (Jelly Belly) sparked a split from the peloton on the penultimate lap, pulling Robin Carpenter and Oscar Clark (Holowesko-Citadel), Matthew Busche (UnitedHealthcare) briefly away, but the peloton sensed the danger and quickly brought those chasers back. Meanwhile, up the road, Langlois attacked the break on the main climb, opening up a 10 second lead.

The Canadian was brought back on the last lap, but the cooperation had completely dissolved in the lead group. The last 10k were a bare-knuckle street brawl, with each rider launching at least one attack, but Langlois' second move with 5km to go was the only one that looked able to stick.

When the chasers relied solely on a fading Zirbel to try to reel in Langlois, their fate was almost sealed. But an attack by Canola erased the gap before the final climb.

Marcotte was the fast man to watch in the group, but he chose the wrong rider to mark on the final 100m, and when Roth went, the Jamis rider hesitated before finally opening up his sprint, a fraction of a second too late.

"Ryan is very experienced," said Silber team director Gord Fraser. "He’s our leader for a reason, and he’s lethal when he gets a chance to win a race. He got tailed off a little bit on the very last climb, but he was able to manage his bullets and come back to the lead three and then take that sprint. I like to see that initiative. You can kind of die by trying leading out a sprint, but it’s kind of like buying a ticket for the lottery, and thankfully that number was good today."

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