April 30/14 21:27 pm - Tour of the Gila: Women Stage 1 report and results
Posted by Editoress on 04/30/14
Mara Abbott, 3-time overall winner of the Tour of the Gila, soloed to victory for the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team on today’s opening stage of the 2014 Tour of the Gila. Mara’s fantastic 2014 season continues to impress, following her stage win at the Redlands Classic and overall victory at the Vuelta a El Salvador earlier this year. Today’s road race covered 118 kilometres for the women and 148 kilometres for the men, with plenty of rollers throughout and a category 1 summit finish, making it a challenging start to the 5-day stage race. The women’s race began with a 3-rider breakaway early in the day, which was kept within reach by the pace making of Blue Train riders Rushlee Buchanan and Katie Hall. Approaching the final category 1 climb, Sharon Laws launched an attack to reel in the remaining two breakaway riders and apply pressure to the peloton. At 5 kilometers from the finish, Mara Abbott made her move, shattering the peloton and leaving only Flavia Oliveira of Team FCS able to follow. The two riders worked together briefly until Mara Abbott gave her final kick with 3 kilometers to go, soloing to victory with 55 seconds to spare at the summit of Mogollon.
Stage winner Mara Abbott commented, “Tour of the Gila is one of my favorite races of the year, and I am so excited to get to compete with this team of riders. Rachel was actually my teammate the first year I won the race, in 2007, so it is really special to be back here with her as my director. Mogollon is the best mountaintop finish in America, and I am very grateful to the Tour of the Gila for having it! I'm proud of the way our entire team rode today... with all of the girls in the top 20 it looks like it could be an amazing week!”
Sports director Rachel Heal added her insight on the day, “Mara has won this stage multiple times and we knew that if we got her safely to the bottom of the climb, the win would be her's for the taking. The team did a great job of keeping the break in check and delivering Mara perfectly. She finished it off in style! With a team of 5 riders up against teams of 8, we will have to ride strong and smart to take the overall race win, but I'm confident we have the team to pull it off.”
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team report
| Stage 1: Silver City to Mogollan Road Race, 117.64 km | |
| 1 Mara Abbott (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) | 3:12:53 |
| 2 Flavia Oliveira (FCS|Zngine p/b Mr. Restore) | at 0:55 |
| 3 Abagail Mickey (TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) | 1:31 |
| 4 Annie Toth (Groove Subaru Excel Sports) | 1:38 |
| 5 E Scotti Wilborne (Team TIBCO to the Top) | 1:48 |
| 6 Sharon Laws (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) | 2:19 |
| 7 Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) | 2:24 |
| 8 Breanne Nalder (DNA Cycling p/b K4) | s.t. |
| 9 Alison Powers (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) | 2:28 |
| 10 Andrea Dvorak (Team TIBCO to the Top) | 2:35 |
| 11 Jessica Cutler (FCS|Zngine p/b Mr. Restore) | 2:39 |
| 12 Carmen Small (DNA Cycling p/b K4) | 2:47 |
| 13 Jessica Cerra (FCS|Zngine p/b Mr. Restore) | s.t. |
| 14 Jasmin Glaesser (Team TIBCO to the Top) | 2:55 |
| 15 Kris Doebel-Hickok (Team TIBCO to the Top) | 3:05 |
| 16 Lex Albrecht (TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) | 3:09 |
| 17 Lauren Stephens (Team TIBCO to the Top) | s.t. |
| 18 Laura Brown (Colavita-Fine Cooking) | 3:19 |
| 19 Julie Emmerman (Rally Sport) | 3:24 |
| 20 Rushlee Buchanan (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) | 3:31 |
| 21 Kaitie Antonneau (TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) | 3:49 |
| 22 Athen Countouriotis (Sisterhood of Cycling) | 4:04 |
| 23 Joanne Kiesanowski (Team TIBCO to the Top) | 4:15 |
| 24 Anne Perry (DNA Cycling p/b K4) | 4:54 |
| 25 Alison Tetrick (TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) | 4:57 |
| 26 Kathryn Donovan (TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) | s.t. |
| 27 Amy Charity (Vanderkitten) | 5:13 |
| 28 Anna Sanders (FCS|Zngine p/b Mr. Restore) | 5:15 |
| 29 Sarah Sturm (Cloud Racing p/b Ride to Recov) | 6:02 |
| 30 Jennifer App (Cloud Racing p/b Ride to Recov) | s.t. |
| 31 Vanessa Johnson (SCCA/Starbucks Cycling) | 6:06 |
| 32 Amy Thornquist (DNA Cycling p/b K4) | 6:08 |
| 33 Kimberley Johnson (Cloud Racing p/b Ride to Recov) | 6:22 |
| 34 Olivia Dillon (Colavita-Fine Cooking) | 6:41 |
| 35 Jacqueline Parker (Cloud Racing p/b Ride to Recov) | 6:53 |
| 36 Cristina Hughes (Pinnacle Training Systems) | 6:56 |
| 37 Kim Jennings (Bicycles Outback Racing/LifeVa) | 7:23 |
| 38 Felicia Gomez (Pinnacle Training Systems) | 7:29 |
| 39 Sarah Barber (DNA Cycling p/b K4) | s.t. |
| 40 Jannie mile Salcedo (National Colombia Team) | 7:45 |
| 41 Katherine Reinhart (Gregg’s Trek) | 8:09 |
| 42 Misha Scovill (Pinnacle Training Systems) | |
| 43 Lindsay Fox (Jobing.com Women’s Racing) | both s.t. |
| 44 Sarah Lough (Cloud Racing p/b Ride to Recov) | 8:34 |
| 45 Heather Fischer (DNA Cycling p/b K4) | 8:39 |
| 46 Lucianne Conklin (GS Boulder) | 8:45 |
| 47 Anne Donley (Ind) | s.t. |
| 48 Patricia Schwager (Team TIBCO to the Top) | 8:48 |
| 49 Amber Gaffney (TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) | s.t. |
| 50 Amanda Miller (Team TIBCO to the Top) | 9:07 |
| 51 Lor Vargas Villamil (National Colombia Team) | 9:29 |
| 52 Anna G Christiansen (FCS|Zngine p/b Mr. Restore) | 9:53 |
| 53 Maria Santiago (CRC Cycling) | s.t. |
| 54 Beth Ann Orton (Pinnacle Training Systems) | 10:08 |
| 55 Genevieve Krahn (Team Manitoba) | 10:25 |
| 56 Laure De Crescenzo (DNA Cycling p/b K4) | 11:11 |
| 57 Rachel Swan (Strive Racing) | 19:10 |
| 58 Mikayla Lyman (DNA Cycling p/b K4) | 23:27 |
| 59 So Arreolo Navarro (TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) | 23:54 |
| 60 Kat Salthouse (Sabino Cycles Racing) | 38:39 |
| DNS Daniela Garcia (ICE SPORTSWEAR Women’s Team) | |
| DNF Hannah Swan (Strive Racing) | |
| DNF Sheila Cousins (Morgan Stanley Specialized) | |
| DNF Kimberly Gialdini (Pact-Dish Network) |
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