photo credits USA Pro Challenge
Kristin Armstrong (Twenty16 p/b Sho Air), maintained her overall lead despite finishing out of the top 5 in today’s third and final stage of 2015 inaugural Women’s Pro Challenge.
“I’m hooked again,” Armstrong said after the race. The two-time Olympic Gold Medalist had come out of a second retirement to race in Colorado.
“This is why I come back,” Armstrong said after the finish. “This is historical, and I’m happy and proud to be a part of this moment.”
Behind Armstrong in the overall classification, was stage 2 winner, Tayler Wiles (DNA Cycling Team).
Meanwhile, Mara Abbott, who was awarded Queen of the Mountains, rounded out the podium in third spot.
“It’s been amazing, it’s been really fun to be able to show off the place I’m most proud of to the world,” said Abbott, “To be able to actually compete here, is unbelievable.”
Today’s stage however, went to Coryn Rivera, after beating Lauren Hall (Twenty16) and Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco-SVB) in a sprint finish.
With today’s victory, Rivera also clinched the sprint competition.
In other results, Rivera’s teammate, Abigail Mickey, was named Best Young Rider, while Amanda Miller (Visit Dallas) was awarded the Most Courageous Jersey.
Today’s race was a tight, 1.5-mile circuit race through the streets of downtown Golden.
Race Highlights
The 56-rider women’s field split nearly from the opening 2.25 km loop. A group of six riders moved to the front and then Amanda Miller (Visit Dallas/Noise4Good) had the first sustained solo break. She built as much as a 10-second cushion after a few laps. Meanwhile, a second group of a dozen riders fell back more than one minute to the main field and then quickly lost further contact.
Miller rode at the front until six laps remained before Olivia Dillion (Visit Dallas/Noise4Good) briefly moved into a slight lead. The lagging rest of the field, nearly six minutes back, was then pulled. The lead group rode together for the final five laps. The loop feature a long, wide steady uphill finish and then a short, steep uphill just after the finish.
“Twenty16 just really kept it together, which worked in my favor,” said Rivera, who also won the sprinter’s stage of the Tour of Utah on August 4. “And then it all came down to positioning and speed at the end”.
Top 20 Finishers
1 Coryn Rivera (USA) Unitedhealthcare 0:59:42 2 Lauren Hall (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 3 Joanne Kiesanowski (NZl) Team Tibco – SVB 4 Lauren Komanski (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 5 Gretchen Stumhofer (USA) Amy D. Foundation 6 Linda Villumsen (NZl) Unitedhealthcare 7 Tayler Wiles (USA) DNA Cycling p/b K4 8 Krista Doebel-Hickok (USA) Team Tibco – SVB 9 Kristin Armstrong (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 10 Robin Farina (USA) BMW p/b Happy Tooth Dental 11 Emma Grant (GBr) Colavita/Bianchi p/b Fine Cooking 12 Mara Abbott (USA) Amy D. Foundation 13 Laura Jorgensen (USA) Pepper Palace Pro Cycling p/b The Happy Tooth 14 Lex Albrecht (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies 15 Amanda Miller (USA) Visit Dallas p/b Noise4Good 16 Olivia Dillon (Irl) Visit Dallas p/b Noise4Good 17 Abigail Mickey (USA) Unitedhealthcare 0:00:07 18 Allie Dragoo (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 19 Katharine Hall (USA) Unitedhealthcare 20 Scotti Lechuga (USA) Unitedhealthcare
Final general classification
1 Kristin Armstrong (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 3:50:44 2 Tayler Wiles (USA) DNA Cycling p/b K4 0:00:29 3 Mara Abbott (USA) Amy D. Foundation 0:00:51 4 Lauren Komanski (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 0:00:58 5 Allie Dragoo (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 0:01:34 6 Abigail Mickey (USA) Unitedhealthcare 0:02:48 7 Katharine Hall (USA) Unitedhealthcare 0:03:19 8 Linda Villumsen (NZl) Unitedhealthcare 0:03:23 9 Robin Farina (USA) BMW p/b Happy Tooth Dental 0:03:29 10 Lauren Hall (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 0:03:34 11 Andrea Dvorak (USA) Twenty 16 p/b Sho Air 0:03:53 12 Coryn Rivera (USA) Unitedhealthcare 0:04:11 13 Kathryn Donovan (USA) Colavita/Bianchi p/b Fine Cooking 0:04:38 14 Krista Doebel-Hickok (USA) Team Tibco – SVB 0:04:42 15 Amanda Miller (USA) Visit Dallas p/b Noise4Good 0:04:49 16 Olivia Dillon (Irl) Visit Dallas p/b Noise4Good 0:05:59 17 Gretchen Stumhofer (USA) Amy D. Foundation 0:06:22 18 Emma Grant (GBr) Colavita/Bianchi p/b Fine Cooking 0:07:35 19 Breanne Nalder (USA) DNA Cycling p/b K4 0:08:52 20 Lex Albrecht (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies 0:09:31
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