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Leipheimer wins first Gila stage, Kristin Armstrong wins womens.
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Did they come to race or train?
The "Mellow Johnny's" team — AKA Astana's Levi Leipheimer, Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner — just couldn't resist going for the win Wednesday at the SRAM Tour of the Gila. Leipheimer sprang from a disintegrating pack on the finish climb, taking a clear win ahead of young phenom Peter Stetina (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin) and recently-rehired Chris Baldwin (Rock Racing).
Leipheimer said he had some doubts about whether the team should go for the win so early in the five-day race.
2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila
- Stage 1: Silver City to Mogollon
- Men: 94.1 miles (151.5km)
- Stage winner: Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny's) in 3:36:02
- Stage winner's average speed: 26.1 mph (# kph)
- Team GC leader: Colavita-Sutter Homes
- Women: 73.1 miles (117.7km)
- Stage winner: Kristin Armstrong in 3:40:42
- Stage winner's average speed: 1 9.8mph (# kph)
- Team GC leader: ValueAct Capital
- Up next: Stage 2
- Thursday's Fort Bayard Inner Loop includes three Category 3 climbs, finishing with a rolling run into a fast sprint at Fort Bayard. Men do 80 miles (128.8km), women do 77.9 miles (125.4km)
"I said to Lance coming up here, 'maybe it would be better that we try and let somebody else win, '" Leipheimer said at the finish. "And he said something that made a lot of sense, he said, 'you know what, you are a winner, go win the race and we'll figure it out.' So we'll figure it out."
It took a few miles longer than usual for the stage's traditional early break to form, as riders from Kelly Benefit Strategies, Bissell, OUCH-Maxxis and Trek-Livestrong were prominent at the front in the early miles. About 30 miles in, Kelly's pre-race favorite Andrew Bajadali crashed and left the race with a shoulder injury.
Twenty miles later, the break du jour formed, containing 15 riders, with representatives from most of the major teams (Mellow Johnny's was notably absent, but Trek-Livestrong was in there, with young Sam Bewley).
The group built a maximum lead of over three minutes, but as the pack approached the base of the Mogollon climb, the Mellow Johnny's team and a few of the other teams that were not in the break began to narrow the gap to just barely a minute as the 15 hit the first slopes of the Mogollon.
As the break headed across a windy mid-climb plateau, it was reduced to just four riders: Chad Beyer, Cam Evans (OUCH), Michael Grabinger (Fly V- Successful Living) and Daniel Vaillancourt (Colavita-Sutter Homes), with Team Type 1's Moises Aldape hanging just off the four.
But while Beyer poured on the gas, the pack was closing to within 20 seconds on the plateau, and when the three-mile climb began in earnest, a lead group of seven riders led by Armstrong passed the remainder of the break. With Armstrong was Leipheimer, Florian Stalder, Rory Sutherland (OUCH), Baldwin, Matt Cooke (RideClean) and Stetina.
Armstrong pulled into the first mile of the climb, with Leipheimer on his wheel. With about two miles to go, as the road narrowed to a crumbly, barely paved slope, Leipheimer accelerated and quickly pulled away.
"I tried to follow Levi's move but it was just so fast," Stetina said. Stetina faded back and rode with Cooke and Baldwin for most of the climb, then attacked Baldwin in the last 300 meters.
The other Armstrong
In the women's race, Cervélo TestTeam's Kristin Armstrong, riding without teammates, covered a flurry of attacks, but allowed a lead group of four to enter the final climb with about one minute's lead.
The four were Webcor's Gina Grain and Rebecca Much, Colavita's Rachel Heal and Lip Smacker's Hilary Billington.
The four were together at the base of the climb, where Armstrong began to lead the chase.
"When we got onto the rough road, we were all together, and I thought maybe I would get attacked," Armstrong said. "I figured if I just set my own pace eventually I would have a smaller and smaller group and I just picked off the other gals."
Much was the last rider who Armstrong caught and passed. She had pushed hard but faded in the final kilometers, finishing eighth at 1:21 and tipping over just past the finish line.
Defending Gila champion Leah Goldstein (ValueAct) was fifth. ValueAct team director Lisa Hunt noted that there are small time gaps between the top five riders and Goldstein or her teammates could challenge for the GC lead.
"Ideally we'd like to be in a break (on stage 2)," Hunt said. "We are going to make Kristin work for this if she wants it."
Armstrong, who won the Gila in 2006, said she came this year primarily as preparation for the Tour de l'Aude in France next month.
Race Notes
- BMC Racing Team's Scott Nydam, Florian Stalder and Chad Beyer raced in Gila Bike & Hike team jerseys, with the BMC logos on their shorts covered with tape. Like the Mellow Johnny's riders, per the UCI agreement, the three are technically riding as individuals, not as members of any team. The BMC riders expect to receive blank Assos kit soon that they will wear for the rest of the week.
- The Fly V-Successful Living team is at the Gila in full force, despite recent reports of financial difficulties. Team director Henk Vogels said "It's business as usual. We're going to be racing the rest of the year with all our racers." Vogels, who retired at the end of last season, won his last pro race at the Gila's criterium last year, riding for Toyota-United.
- Astana director Johan Bruyneel compared the late notice of entry at the Gila to last year, when the team got a week's notice that it was invited to the Giro d'Italia. "First we have to get used to the thought of being here," he said. Bruyneel said Armstrong seems to have recovered well from his broken collarbone, but needs a few more race miles. "I think he is more or less back to the same level as when he crashed. We didn't see in Castilla y Leon how good that was, but I think he's good enough to start the Giro."
- Armstrong said before the start he was a little nervous about his first race since his injury. "You know, even just getting back ... I've been riding by myself for three years, goofing off, and then they throw you into Milan-San Remo and scare the shit out of you. So I've tried to take a little more risk on the bike, just to get used to that again. But I won't be in the field sprints!"
- Armstrong also said he had lost about 6 pounds since the Tour of California, and is within a kilo of his usual Tour racing weight of 74.5 or 75 kilos.
- Chris Baldwin drove to the Gila from Colorado, expecting to race as an independent after being fired by Rock Racing last week. But on the drive he learned that he had been re-hired, and he suited up in Rock kit and finished third on stage 1.
