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Fly V's Zajicek wins final Gila stage, outsprinting Armstrong and Leiphiemer
Kristin Armstrong wins her third stage and the overall, as Matt Cooke, Scott Nydam and Cam Evans crash out
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Fly V's Phil Zajicek won Sunday's Gila Monster stage of the SRAM Tour of the Gila, outsprinting Mellow Johnny's teammates Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer in the final, technical meters of the 106-mile stage.
Zajicek, who has won several stages at the Gila in prior years, said the win Sunday was the biggest of his career. "Because I beat Lance and Levi," he happily told VeloNews at the finish.
Leipheimer secured his overall win, while Armstrong moved up to second and Zajicek moved into third on the final GC standings.
2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila
- Stage 5: Gila Monster Road Race
- Men: 105.7 miles (170.2km)
- Stage winner: Phil Zajicek (Fly V-Successfull Living) in 4:29:32
- Stage winner's average speed: 23.5 mph (37.8 kph)
- Final GC winner: Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny's)
- Final Team GC winner: Bissell
- Stage 1 winner: Leipheimer
- Stage 2 winner: Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home)
- Stage 3 winner: Leipheimer
- Stage 4 winner: Roman van Uden (Land Rover/ORBEA)
- Women: 71.8 miles (115.6 km)
- Stage winner: Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo TestTeam) in 3:30:56
- Stage winner's average speed: 20.4 mph (32.9 kph)
- Final GC winner: Armstrong
- Final Team GC winner: ValueAct
- Stage 1 winner: Armstrong
- Stage 2 winner: Gina Grain (Webcor Builders)
- Stage 3 winner: Armstrong
- Stage 4 winner: Carla Swart (Lip Smackers)
Peter Stetina, who was in second overall coming into the stage, lost more than five minutes and fell to tenth. The young Felt-Holowesko-Garmin rider had intestinal problems and had to pull over for a pit stop about 20 miles from the finish.
The early part of the stage was marked by crashes, including one less than ten miles into the race that involved Taylor Phinney (Trek-Livestrong), Cam Evans (OUCH) and several others. Phinney quickly rejoined the race but Evans was taken to a hospital. His condition was not immediately available.
A few miles later, Scott Nydam crashed out of an 11-man break, and was airlifted from the scene. Nydam, normally on Team BMC, was racing the Gila for the ad hoc "B Team." He also was involved in a crash in Saturday's criterium.
RideClean's Matt Cooke, who had been in tenth, also crashed and broke his collarbone in a separate incident, his team said.
Aside from the crashes, the first 60 miles of the race were steady, with Trek-Livestrong leading the front of the group, followed by Stetina's Garmin squad and the Mellow Johnny's threesome.
The breakaway, which contained Bissell's Ben Jacques-Maynes, Neil Shirley of Kelly Benefit Strategies and Planet Energy's Francois Parisien, built a maximum lead of over 4 minutes but came apart quickly when the race entered its mountainous final 40 miles.
The break's remnants were reeled in and the front group was reduced to a small cadre after Chris Horner led up the first category climb out of the Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument, with about 30 miles remaining. When the leaders hit the last climb, the lead group was down to just Leipheimer, Armstrong, Horner, Zajicek, Team B's Chad Beyer and Bissell's Burke Swindlehurst. Rock Racing's Chris Baldwin and Tom Zirbel were close behind. Horner was providing most of the horsepower at the front, then yo-yo'd off the back of the group in the final miles.
"I didn't take a single pull," Zajicek said. "I was at my limit just staying on (the Mellow Johnny's) wheels."
Coming into the last kilometer, Leipheimer led Zajicek, Beyer and Armstrong. Leipheimer said he was trying to lead out Armstrong for the stage win, but was not as familiar with the finish as Zajicek, who has raced the Gila seven or eight times.
Beyer let a gap open in the last 300 meters and Armstrong had to come around to catch up with Leipheimer. Zajicek jumped around Leipheimer with 200 meters to go and took the win by 12 seconds ahead of Armstrong and Leipheimer, who sat up and crossed the line together. Beyer came in another 12 seconds back..
"Levi rode so hard," Zajicek said. "Horner gave everything and then Levi tried to lead out Lance, but Lance cracked — I heard him yell with 200 meters to go, 'go Levi go.' I just stood up and gave it absolutely everything. I was falling apart, but ..." he laughed.
Leipheimer and Armstrong said they misplayed the finish.
"We were focused on getting Lance the stage win and we definitely kind of screwed it up at the end," Leipheimer told VeloNews. "It was mainly my fault, I went a little too hard and Lance was too far back and got gapped off by Chad Beyer and had to close the gap ... I ended up giving Phil the perfect lead-out. He did a great race, hats off to him."
Armstrong takes her third stage and the win
Cervelo's Kristin Armstrong rode through a four-woman breakaway on the final climb, solo'ing nearly the last ten miles to a win of over a minute, her third stage win at this year's Gila.
The long breakaway members were Amanda Miller (Lip Smackers), Rebecca Much (Webcor), Hilary Billington (Lip Smackers) and Nicole Evans (ValueAct). The group built a lead of over four minutes, but dissolved on the first slopes of the final long climb.
Evans was the last survivor, and was passed by Armstrong not far into the climb. Evans continued alone, in second place, for eight or nine miles until she was caught by a small bunch in the last 300 meters.
