Albrecht wins stage 2 at Tour of the Gila, Wiles takes race lead Tibco rider wins from late breakaway, Wiles finishes second

Lex Albrecht (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) won stage 2 at the Tour of the Gila Thursday, out-sprinting breakaway companions Tayler Wiles (UnitedHealthcare) and Scotti Lechuga (Hagens Berman Supermint) at the finish in Fort Bayard. It was Wiles who came away with the Gila’s top prize, however, as she rode into the overall race lead.

Albrecht joined Wiles and Lechuga, who had escaped before the final QOM of the day, to form a three-rider move that was able to hold off the reduced peloton after a tough day of racing in New Mexico.

“There were a lot of attacks in the final kilometres, which is normal for this stage,” Albrecht said. “We were just working really hard, my Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank teammates and I, to cover all of them and I just happened to cover the final one that Tayler Wiles from UHC put in.

“I spent some of my last matches just to stick on and I followed them right to the last kilometres,” she said.

In the finale, Albrecht waited patiently for Wiles to jump, which she did with about 500 metres remaining, then the Tibco rider slowly clawed her way back and passed the UnitedHealthcare rider at the line.

“I tried not to jump too hard because of the altitude; if you jump too hard out here you can explode, figuratively speaking, and so I knew I just had to drag her back,” Albrecht said. “In the last few 50 metres or so, that’s when I really stomped on the pedals and just passed her for the finish.”

Wiles was disappointed to miss out on the stage win after working hard in the break, but taking the leader’s jersey more than made up for the stage result.

“Today was really good,” she said. “We had our ‘sprinty, climby’ riders work their butts off pacing it up and over the climb. Katie Hall, Ruth Winder and I took turns attacking – my dad calls it the three-headed monster. That paid off today, because I eventually got off the front with Scotti Lechuga and Lex Albrecht. Lex sat on while Scotti and I worked really hard.

“In the last km it was slowing down and I was getting nervous. I went early, got a bit of a gap. Lex was fresh so she sprinted and came around me right at the line. But we still have the jerseys and raced really well so I’m happy about that.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-the-gila-2017/women-stage-2/results/