Ganzar wins Winston Salem Cycling Classic women's race

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Leigh Ann Ganzar (Hagens Berman-Supermint) won the Winston Salem Cycling Classic road race on Monday. She took a solo win ahead of chasers Arlenis Sierra (Astana) and Chloe Dygert-Owen (Twenty20-Shor-Air).

"This was the biggest win of my career and a full team effort," Ganzar said. "I couldn't have done it without my teammates. The intent [of the last attack] was to keep it fast. I looked back and had a gap, didn't see anyone come across, so I put my head down and tried to last as long as I could."

The women raced for 96km in and around Bailey Park. A decisive 10-rider breakaway cleared the field over the penultimate queen of the mountain and with roughly 15km to the finish line, 1 lap.

The group included Lauren Stephens (Tibco-SVB), Arlenis Sierra (Astana), Chloe Dygert-Owen and Shayna Powless (Twenty20-Sho-Air), Leigh Ann Ganzar and defending champion Lily Williams (Hagens Berman-Supermint), Sara Bergen (Rally UHC), Deborah Paine and Edwige Pitel (Cogeas - Mettler Pro Cycling Team), and Australia's Emily Roper.

Ganzar attacked at the start of the final lap, which gave her teammate Williams a chance to recover in the chase group. She held a 30-second gap up the final climb.

Dygert-Owen jumped over the top of the climb to try and close the gap to Ganzar, with Sierra on her wheel. Dygert-Owen pushed hard on the pedals and cut the gap down to 10 seconds on the way to the finish line. Sierra started helping Dygert-Owen in the final kilometres, both trying to catch Ganzar, but they weren't able to shut it down before the finish line.

Full results