In the mountains surrounding Silver City, New Mexico this Sunday, Canadian cycling phenom’ Geneviève Jeanson (Rona Esker) and Flagstaff, Arizonan, full-time father, husband, mechanical engineer, and self-proclaimed ‘old, club rider,’ Drew Miller tucked their third Tour of the Gila overall wins each under their respective belts on Sunday. Showing two different types of cycling dominance -- Jeanson purely overmatching her competition, Miller outworking and outplaying his -- the men’s and women’s races were each decided before they had reached the halfway mark earlier this weak.

In a wind-stricken, but dry, 105-mile race (the weathermen incorrectly predicted rain – those damn meteorologists), Miller matched every aggressive move by Tecos’ Ubaldo Mesa Estepa and the two quickly formed an alliance off the front of the race. The duo rode away from the rest of the field up 1600 foot high Copperas Vista climb and work together so that both could claim victories for the day – Estepa the stage, Miller the overall title.

Jeanson repeated her solo breakaways of Stages 2 and 3, leaving the field after eight short miles of racing and soloing her way for the final 61 miles to a victory 6:44 ahead of a chase group of 16 women which included second and third placed GC contenders Manon Jutras (Saturn Cycling) and Katrina Grove (T-Mobile).

Domination Jeanson style
The race course was no big-ring time trial for Jeanson either. It involved one Category 2 and two Cat. 4 climbs. Should a chase have been able to get close to her, the uphill finish may have given hope to those behind. But Jeanson would never be challenged. She broke away from the women’s field after its first major turn and ran the rest of the race mostly blind.

“I got a little bit of information about where everyone was but without a caravan, I didn’t know much,” she said of her thoughts after breaking away. “I felt good, but the wind was strong so I worked on my time trial.”

After a while, Jeanson had no one to chase except the masters racers who had started well ahead of her

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Jeanson, in the understatement of the week, says she feels she’s in “pretty good shape” right now.

“I’m feeling good for (it being) the beginning of the season.” Jeanson’s GC final 18-minute gap over second place was nearly seven minutes better than her Gila win last year over Kim Bruckner.

So is she in that much better form than last year?

“Last year I felt good, too,” Jeanson remarked. “The results always depend on the condition of the race and how it goes. When I come here I like to test myself. It’s a challenge for me to try and break away and spend the whole day in the wind by myself.”

And Gila, timed to fall after all of that winter training is complete and at the beginning of the serious season, is a great opportunity for Jeanson to try out her form.

Legs of steel
The men’s race, 105 hard miles, ascended and descended two Cat. 4, two Cat. 2 and one Cat. 1 climbs. The downhills, in particular, were sketchy and dangerous. During two nasty descents, three crashes put several riders out of the race prematurely.

Early, though courageous, breakaway attempts lifted the pace and forced Trek-VW to try and control the main peloton. Ron Hudson (Sportsbook.com) got away at 48 miles and stayed out for almost 30 minutes until he was caught on a descent. Then Gord Fraser took over.

With Fraser sitting fourth in GC and only 1:39 behind Miller, the Trek/VW All-Stars had to respond.

Neutral support. When you get a flat, your first job is to find your wheel

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

“The team got to the front and brought Gord back,” Miller said of his composite team which includes long-time Landis/Trek/VW friends Scott Price and Jacob Rubect as well as Denver-based regional Trek racer Jeff Hartman and professional mountain bike racers Travis Brown and Walker Ferguson. “We had about a ton-and-a-half of beef up there driving the pace through the valley (between climbs). 30 seconds before the big climb, we caught Gord. We felt he was shot at that point so we just rode right through.”

Mexico’s premier University-sponsored racing team had a move to match.

“We feel that we have a real chance to win the race,” said Ubaldo Mesa Estepa through an interpreter before the race. “Attacking on the mountains is out plan today.”

So Estepa surged off the front in an uphill attack on some of the steepest sections of the climb. Miller and a small knot of riders, which included dangerous second-placed GC rider, Mike Sayers, were able to just pace consistently and pull Estepa back. Estepa surged again and again.

Suddenly, on the third big climb of the day, the reverse ascension of the Copperas Vista climb (rated Cat. 1), Miller and Estepa found themselves a few yards ahead of the rest.

“Estepa was feeling good,” said Miller at the finish. “He was riding a real comfortable pace.”

Exchanging hand signals, Miller and Estepa agreed to help each other and share the glory.

“Once I saw that we had a gap,” said Miller, “he was offering for us to work together so he could have the stage and I could get the overall.”

The group behind had splintered. Sayers had fallen back somehow. The 6 riders worked to bring Miller and Estepa back.

“The chase group caught us at the base of the final big climb,” Miller said. “A couple of the guys said that Sayers flatted. Ubaldo and I decided that regardless of whether we were caught or not, we were going to go on that climb. We felt that since we dropped people one time, we would be able to do it again. It was comfy after that. We rode a nice pace. Ubaldo did the majority of the work.”

Their gap grew to more than two minutes up the next climb. By the time they reached the bottom and had only the final climb to Pinos Altos to go, Miller’s only major remaining threat, Sayers, had fallen more than 2:30 behind, stuck alone with no-one to help him work up.

As agreed, Estepa crossed the finish line first for a well-deserved stage win. Miller followed two seconds back and assured himself that, for the third time in 13 years, he was the champion of the Tour of the Gila.

Race NotesMiller Time
Drew Miller is somewhat an inspiration. At 35, he Miller has a full-time career and family. He trains around his work and home schedule and races with “a core group of friends” for fun and for the passion of cycling.

Of course, he's no stranger to success in cycling or success in the Tour of the Gila. After all, he won the race both in 1990 and 1994. And let’s not forget he won La Vuelta de Bisbee just one weekend ago. But there has been a gap of this level of top success between then and now. A gap he doesn’t regret, a gap that he chose, and a gap he has filled with things “more important to me than cycling.”

With a perspective like that, and the legs and lungs to do what he’s done in the past few weeks, every racer or cycling fan we spoke to said they couldn’t be happier for Miller’s success.

The race for second
As for Mademoiselle Jeanson. Is there any other women’s sport where one athlete is so much more dominant than she is in hers? Following her wins at Valley of the Sun, Redlands, Sea Otter, and now the Tour of the Gila, has she not proven that whenever she shows up to a women’s road race, the rest of the field is fighting for second? She has been impressive to watch, except from the peloton, where the effect is one more depressive.

Off-roaders solid on pavement
Sunday’s Gila Monster Road Race provided a grand stage for mountain bikers today, with four top mountain-bike pros finishing in the top six in the stage.

It seems Gila is a perfect stomping ground for knobbers to find out if they’re ready for the NORBA National Championship Series which launches in Big Bear, CA in two weeks (God willing that it occurs without further incident).

The run-down of the six-man chase working to pull back Miller and Estepa in the men’s race read like the sign-in sheet at a NCS event. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX Polo-Sport), Andreas Hestler (Canadian Cycling Association), Todd Wells (Hyundai Mongoose), and Carl Swenson (RLX Polo-Sport) kept the company of roadies Jon Stierwalt (Team Rio Grand) and Blake Caldwell (5280/Subaru). We caught up with an excited Hestler at the finish line.

A quick Q&A
Velo News: Wasn’t it cool how there were all those mountain bikers in the final chase group?

Andreas Hestler: It really was awesome. It always seems that no matter what road race we do, when the road goes up, you always see mountain bikers at the front. We saw a lot of fighting down on the flats to get to the climbs today, but once we climbed, it was mountain bikers to the front.

VN: Have the road racers been giving you crap about being a mountain biker?

AS: : With Roland and all the people that have crossed over and done well, the roadies have eased up on the amount of crap they given us the last few years. Now it’s more of a catch phrase, something to say more than it has any meaning. You know, it’s “ah, those f***ing mountain bikers. But they mean it affectionately.

VN: You had quite a mountain bike group going there. Wells, Horgan-Kobelski, Swenson.

AS: : We had two roadies too. I said to them at one point ‘listen guys, if you don’t start helping us, it’s going to be four fit mountain bikers attacking you. You gotta keep working. The roadies were looking at each other trying to figure out if I was serious or not so I figured my mind games were working.”

VN: And the final break up of that group happened how?

AS: : That was Jeremy and I. He went and I went. I had his wheel at about the 500 meter to go mark. He was driving it and I’m thinking I’ve got him right where I want him. But, I just couldn’t come around him.

VN: Was that push about bragging rights between yourselves or were you seriously chasing Miller and Estepa for the win?

AS: : A bit of both. There was one place left on the podium for sure. I was trying to keep it tight also for the pecking order because JHK was only like 11, 12 seconds in back of me. There was a time bonus (for third in the stage) and letting JHK get a few seconds in the race would have affected the GC. But, to be sure, it was about ego too.