After day one of the Colorado Classic in Vail, Colo., Australian native Rebecca Wiasak leads the pack after facing the Vail mountain course for the first time, while Colorado local Gage Hecht climbed past the pack winning four of the five classifications in the men's race.
Last day in Vail, the riders move away from circuit race format and will instead cycle up Vail Pass on a 10-mile time trial course.
Tommy Boyd, a racer with the Vail Valley Foundation, says that the Stage 2 Vail Pass course is what put the town on the map for pro cycling.
“This is the section of course that really put Vail on the world’s cycling map, because it’s a lot of elevation, because it’s very curvy and it’s challenging.”
In the women's race, Katherine (Katie) Hall riding for UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team claimed the blue leaders jersey after finishing the climb first with a time of 30:08:07 followed by her teammate Leah Thomas (30:34).
"It was a really hard time trial for us just because of the altitude," said Hall, who has been on a major stage race rampage this year, winning Tour of California, Tour of the Gila and Redlands Bicycle Classic. "I felt like it was really important to pace it really really well because if you go too hard here it just takes a long time to recover because there's just no oxygen up here."
Yesterday's winner Rebecca Wiasak finished 39th after finishing the race 5:06 slower than Hall.
RELATED | RESULTS: Stage 1 of the Colorado Classic
Stage 2 women's results:
General Classification | Sprint Competition | Queen of the Mountain | Best Young Rider | Most Aggressive Rider | Team Classification |
Katherine Hall | Rebecca Wiasak | Leah Thomas | Gillian Ellsay | Sara Poidevin | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team |
Leah Thomas | Jennifer Valente | Katherine Hall | Sara Poidevin | Jennifer Valente | TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank |
Abigail Mickey | Lex Albrecht | Abigail Mickey | Emily Marcolini | Fearless Femme | |
Krista Doebel-Hickok | Kendall Ryan | Gillian Ellsay | Leigh Ann Ganzar | Palmares | |
Gillian Ellsay | Rachel Langdon | Krista Doebel-Hickok | Charlotte Backus | Twenty20 PB Sho-Air |
After Stage 2, Katherine Hall is the current leader of the Women's General Classification followed by teammate Leah Thomas and the Abigail Michey riding for Rally Cycling. Find the full standings here.
The men's race crowned a new champion as well after UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Gavin Mannion had the best time (25:41) in the Stage 2 Time Trials. Fellow UHC rider Serge Tsvetkov followed for a second place finish (25:52) and Hugh Carthy of EF Education-Drapac p/b Cannondale for the third place finish (26:02).
General Classification | Sprint Competition | King of the Mountain | Best Young Rider | Most Aggressive Rider | Team Classification |
Gavin Mannion | Gage Hecht | Gage Hecht | Dan Martinez | Niklas Eg | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling |
Serghei Tvetcov | Travis Mccabe | Pascal Eenkhoorn | Jack Burke | Jean Bosco Nsengimana | EF Education-Drapac p/b Cannondale |
Hugh Carthy | Joe Lewis | Alex Cataford | Neilson Powless | Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis | |
Joe Dombrowski | Serghei Tvetcov | Niklas Eg | Louis Villalobos | Rally Cycling | |
Damien Howson | Alex Cataford | Eder Frayre | Niklas Eg | Trek Segafredo |
Mannion and Tvetcov help their team UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling take the lead after Stage 2, while yesterday's winner and Parker, Colo. native Gage Hecht wins his second Sprint Competitions and King of the Mountain jerseys.
In the general classification men's standings, Mannion now takes over the leader position followed by Tvetcov and Carthy. Hecht is now in 17th place.
The Colorado Classic is halfway done, Stage 3 and Stage 4 will continue in Denver's RiNo Art District with the men's race at 10:30 a.m. for a 100-mile course with 8,133 feet of climbing. The race will take them by: Coors Field, Golden, Lookout Mountain, Red Rocks Park, Evergreen, Indian Hills, Dinosaur Ridge and back down to Velorama where they started.
The women's race will start at 12:30 p.m. for a timed criterium (50 minutes plus five laps around the RiNo Art District and Velorama Festival.