Tour of the Gila; Stage 2 Inner Loop Road Race

Pipp takes field sprint and Logan-Sprenger takes impressive solo win

(April 28, 2011) SILVER CITY, NM—More excellent New Mexico weather greeted racers at the start of the second stage of racing in and around the Gila National Forest.  The Pro Men lined up for 80 miles of racing and 5781 feet of climbing which started and finished at the old Army Fort Bayer located 9 miles out of Silver City, and the Pro Women raced a slightly shorter version of the same course which started at Pinos Altos and covered 64.2 miles with 4595 feet of climbing.

Immediately after the Pro Men cleared the neutral rolling start, the attacks started flying, and a breakaway of five quickly formed on Hwy 180 with Danny Summerhill (Garmin) and Marsh Cooper (Kelly Benefit Strategies) bridging up to the leaders after the first KOM before Pinos Altos.  Jay Thomson took both KOM points, but it wasn’t enough to unseat Mancebo (RealCyclist) from the KOM competition lead. 

After winding down some very steep and narrow roads, the breakaway got a maximum advantage of 2:20, but on the downhill after the second KOM point, the peloton brought the breakaway back so that a field sprint would ensue.  Notably, RealCyclist and Fly-V did a fair share of work in bringing back the breakaway while Mancebo was actively at the front helping to keep the pace up.

Coming into the final stretch which featured a couple turns before a dead straight finish with a very slight rise and fall at the finish line, Bissel had their sprinter Frank Pipp comfortably tucked in to uncork a winning field sprint. 

Pipp recounted the days racing, “We had Jay Thomson in the breakaway, and if they got caught the plan was for me to go for the sprint.  I played it cautious on the decent from Pinos Altos since it was my first Tour of the Gila, and the roads would eat you alive if you went down on it.  It was a hard day going up and down all day, so there weren’t a lot of guys there for the sprint.  Coming into the finish my guys did a great job in getting me to the front, and I opened it up with about 250K to go to get it.”

Annibal Borrajo (Jamis Sutter-Home) took second and Mancebo would take third in the sprint to further boost his gc lead with the time bonus.  Tyler Wren (Jamis Sutter-Home) retained second on the GC, and Joe Dombrowski (Trek Livestrong) also retained his third place on the GC.

The Pro Women’s race saw Heather Logan-Sprenger (Colavita Forno D’Asolo) take a solo victory over her two charers Heather Lasasso (MapMyRide) and Tyler Wiles (Peanut Butter / Twenty 12).  Lasasso would take the sprint against Wiles for second.  Logan-Sprenger would take the sprinters jersey while Mara Abbott (Diadora – Pasta Zara) finished with the pack and maintained her lead in the GC.