May 4/06 11:22 am - Tour of the Gila: Stage 2

Posted by Editoress on 05/4/06
 

Tour of the Gila New Mexico USA

Women's Report
Courtesy Team Biovail
Yesterday's win by Anne Samplonius in the opening stage time trial, meant stage two saw Team Biovail defending the leader's jersey. The 115 kilometre race starts with a long descent, followed by two bonus sprints mid-way through the course. However the key feature of the race is the finishing climb in Mogollon, where over the course of 6.7 miles the race goes from roughly 5000 feet to almost 6800 feet, with the final 3 miles of the climb featuring sections of up to 19% grade.

The first bonus sprint saw second place Kristen Armstrong of Team Lipton and Rachel Heal of Victory Brewing going for the 10 second bonus, with Kristen nudging our Rachel at the line. With the massive climb looming the race rolled along with little action until the second bonus sprint, which was the scene of an unfortunate crash at the head of the field. The crash took down upwards of 20 riders, including Stephanie Bourbeau and Joëlle Numainville of Team Biovail.

The crash and second sprint left the field in disarray with many teams forced to chase including Erinne Willock of Webcor and two of her team mates, who had been caught behind the crash. Once the field reformed it was Joelle Numainville, who began the first real aggression of the day with a solo attack about 50 kilometres from the finish. With no other teams willing to respond Joëlle held off the field on her own for approximately 30 kilometres at times gaining almost 3 minutes on the peloton, until the base of the final climb.

At the base of the climb Team Biovail tried to keep the pace high at the front with Jen Stephenson and then Gabriela Gonsalez-Ferrat covering attacks and setting the pace. The last 5 kilometres saw second place Kristen Armstrong putting the pressure on the remaining field, which was very quickly reduced to 5 riders. Samplonius was the first to come off when Armstrong powered up the climb with Willock on her wheel. At 1 kilometre to go Armstrong accelerated away from Willock to take the victory. Samplonius fought hard up the steep climb overtaking Dotsie Bausch of Colavita for a third place finish in the stage.

The tour of the Gila continues tomorrow, with 120 kilometres of racing and over 5000 feet of climbing, Team Biovail will focus on maintaining podium positions for individual and team general classification.

Men's Report
Courtesy Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis
Scott Moninger of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis has won the second stage of the Tour of the Gila, a 92-mile run from Silver City to Mogollon in New Mexico that featured over 5,600 feet of climbing.

Moninger, a two-time Gila champion, finished several seconds ahead of Stage 1 winner Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) on the final 5.5 mile climb to the finish. The win also earned Moninger a time bonus that moved him an additional five seconds closer to Baldwin at the top of the general classification. Baldwin came into the stage with a 40-second lead on Moninger.

"We're doing what we can with only three guys here," Moninger said. "We have to pick and choose where to show our hand. We don't want to try to get the leader's jersey too early because we really don't have the team to defend it."

Instead, Moninger and teammates Gord Fraser and Roman Kilun are riding tactically and opportunistically.

"We were hoping Toyota would take control of the race today and defend Baldwin's lead and that's what they did," Moninger said. "We didn't have to do too much work today."

But Toyota-United almost left it too late, as they caught Michael Lange (TIAA-CREF), who had been part of a long break, just 500 metres from the line on the final climb. But then, Moninger noted, with the finishing climb being so steep, that was still several minutes before the end.

The tour continues Friday with a 73-mile road race that features less climbing than today's second stage and often ends in a sprint finish.

Stage 2: Silver City to Mogollon Road Race