THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Wrubleski, Botero win Redlands
Alex Wrubleski (Webcor Builders) and Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) wrapped up the overall titles at California's Redlands Classic on Sunday.
Wrubleski not only won the Beaver Medical Group Sunset Road Race in a bunch sprint, just ahead of Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) and Kim Anderson (Team High Road), but took just enough bonus time in Sunday’s final stage of the Redlands Cycling Classic to take the overall from Mara Abbott (Team High Road) by a mere second.
In the men’s race, Alejandro Borrajo was led out by a powerful Colavita-Sutter Home train for the stage win, just ahead of Tony Cruz (BMC) and Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis). Botero finished in the field, clinching the overall title, with Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) in second place at 54 seconds back, and Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) in third at 1:06.
Women
Famous for its torturous climbs and fast, twisting descents, the women’s 66-mile Sunset Road Race included 9 circuits of the Sunset Loop. With a tight race on GC, attacks came fast and furious, splintering the women’s field on the first circuit.
With Abbott holding a slight 11-second lead at the start of the day, Wrubeleski’s Webcor team was intent on challenging Abbott's positionfor the final standings.
“That’s all we cared about,” Wrubleski said.
The team was keenly aware that Wrubleski needed to earn mid-race Queen of the Mountain time bonuses, as well as the finish bonus, in order to wrest the lead from Abbott and the High Road squad, so Webcor hit it hard on the first hill. The effort proved successful, putting Wrubleski across the QOM line first. But because Abbott earned third, the team knew Wrubleski needed more bonus time at the finish along with a gap on Abbott.
On the third lap, Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine) attacked, and increased her lead to one minute and forty seconds by the fourth circuit.
“My main goal was to put pressure on the other teams to have to chase me and tire them out,” Samplonius said. “We were hoping to put Leigh Hobson on the podium, so I was really sacrificing myself for Leigh today.”
While a number of riders attempted to bridge, including Aaron’s Kristin Sanders, High Road’s Alex Rhodes, Webcor’s Rebecca Much and Colavita’s Andrea Dvorak, Samplonius succeeded in increasing the gap to nearly two minutes, putting her in the virtual lead, before Meredith Miller (Aaron’s) bridged across in the eighth circuit.
Samplonius said that she didn’t “have a lot left” by the time Miller caught her – “I felt bad … [and] was kinda like, Meredith, I’m sorry!”
“When I went, it was unfortunate that no one went with me,” Miller said, “because obviously numbers would have been better.”
When Samplonius and Miller stayed away, Wrubleski said her team began to get a bit nervous.
“We basically started pulling on the climbs and High Road would do the flats, so eventually, we caught ‘em” on a climb with two circuits to go,” she said.
But things were far from settled and Cheerwine’s Stacy Marples launched out of the group and Erinne Willock (Webcor Builders) jumped on her wheel. With a bit of a gap, Willock dropped back and worked at the front of the group with Christine Thorburn (Webcor Builders); they caught Marples with about 5k to go.
“Those two just hauled ass all the way to the finish,” Wrubleski explained. “And when Kim [Anderson] went, I just went on her wheel, and I just attacked her, and I got a gap” and came across for the win. “It was wicked!”
The well-timed move proved to be fruitful, putting Wrubleski into three jerseys: the leader’s jersey, the climber’s jersey and the sprinter’s jersey. Indeed, since Redlands is the first race in the Women’s Prestige Cycling Series, she took the series’ leader’s jersey as well.
Abbott, denied the win by a single second said she and her team had gambled and lost during the flurry of attacks on the final lap.
“We took a chance … there was a racer off [Marples], and we knew if she stayed off, she would take up the time bonus. Alex has been sprinting really well, so it was very dangerous to come to the finish line with her because chances are she would be able to take the stage,” she said. “So we took the chance, rather than trying to attack and get me or Kim off on the last lap, of letting [the break] sit and hopefully it would work out for us. And then unfortunately, it got brought back at a point in the race when we were going down really fast, and you have all the momentum, and it’s gonna be really hard for anyone to get out, to get away. So, we played one card, and it wasn’t the right card. But that’s bike racing.”
Race Note
At just 15 years old, Coryn Rivera (Rock Racing) was the youngest woman in the Redlands Cycling Classic, and raced the event as a Cat. 2. In a field of 66 in Sunday’s stage, she not only finished in 19th place, but rode the majority of the race with the main field, which had been whittled down very early on. She placed 27th overall. In the last two years, Rivera has won 11 junior national titles in road, time trial, criterium, track and cyclocross.
Men
Holding a 54-second lead on GC, Botero’s Rock Racing team had less to worry about, but the men’s race still proved to be dramatic. On the first of 12 circuits of the Sunset Loop, the men’s field shattered when a crash occurred on an early climb. Roughly 20 to 24 riders were caught in it. Those who recovered spent much of the rest of day in an ultimately fruitless effort to catch up to the main field.
After the crash, the main field was whittled down to roughly 60 riders, with a number of smaller chase groups behind. Fifteen teams were represented in the main field, and those with the largest numbers included Rock Racing, which worked at the front much of the day with Cuban team Caico, Colavita-Sutter Home, defending champion Andy Bajadali’s Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast, Health Net-Maxxis, and BMC.
Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) launched an attack on the fifth time around, and was joined by the previous day’s crit’ winner, Jeff Louder (BMC). The pair built a one-minute gap that started to come down by the seventh circuit.
Cruz said that putting Louder in the break was exactly what the BMC team had planned.
“We wanted somebody in the move, and Louder’s got some serious form right now, so it was perfect,” he said. “And then I would try and win the stage. And yesterday, it was funny. Louder said, ‘We’re not doing anything until the halfway point, even if a break goes away, and then someone’s got to be in the move. And if the move gets caught, [Cruz] is going for the finish.’ Who ends up in the move? Louder. He pretty much predicted his race and his victory. It was hilarious.”
In the seventh lap, Peter Stetina (Slipstream-Chipotle) bridged to Jacques-Maynes and Louder, helping to increase the gap. Jacques-Maynes, who started the day not feeling well, eventually fell off the pace. By the 11th lap, Louder and Stetina were caught by the main field.
Because the Sunset Loop is so challenging and the field typically does break into many different chase groups – as it did on Sunday – when the men head down the hill to complete the race with six laps around the crit course downtown, only the first men down are allowed onto the course. The remaining riders are directed off-course and their times are pro-rated.
Thirty men representing 13 teams made the cut, and the teams with greatest numbers included Colavita-Sutter Home and BMC with five each; Toyota-United with four, including GC second placed Baldwin; and Slipstream-Chipotle and Bissell — including GC third placed Swindlehurst — with three each. Botero, accompanied by teammate Oscar Sevilla, also made the cut. Sutherland, on the other hand, was alone.
“I struggled until three laps to go to find a good position in the group because it seemed like every team had three or four guys in there and I was all on my lonesome just trying to find a good wheel somewhere,” he said. “Eventually I got to the right place and … there’s a little bit of a downhill section, and Tony Cruz was giving me a few bumps – which were not necessarily exceptionally appreciated — but I’m not exactly gonna fold when somebody does that to me. He lost the wheel coming into the last corner, and he couldn’t get around the other guy. So congratulations to Borrajo for winning, because he led out the sprint … and that’s how you win the race.”
Speaking with Colavita director Sebastian Alexandre acting as translator, Borrajo gave the credit to his team.
“The team did a perfect job. They tried to control the lead-out, and into the last lap, we had three guys left. They just dropped me with 400 meters to go, and I just needed to get to the line and put my hands up because the team did an awesome job.”
Botero came across the line safely with the group, and so stayed in the leader’s yellow jersey – winning his first race in America.
“Today the team won for me, like yesterday,” he said. “This team is strong … I am very happy for Michael Ball and [team director] Mariano [Friedick] because they trust in us.”
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