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Wherry, Jeanson cap Gila with stage wins
Mercury’s Chris Wherry and Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson each capped off their overall wins at the Tour of the Gila by taking their respective stage wins in the Gila Monster Road Race on Sunday. Wherry added the final stage to go along with his stage 1 time trial win, while Jeanson’s was her fourth stage win out of five.
As she had done on both of the other road stages, Jeanson attacked early and opened up a big gap. The Canadian was left unchallenged, and would finish 5:47 ahead of Saturn’s Kimberly Bruckner on the stage. On the long finishing climb through the Gila national forest, Bruckner and Rona’s Karen Bockel broke clear of the rest of the group, with Bruckner outsprinting Bockel at the finish. In the overall, Jeanson topped Bruckner by more than 11 minutes, and Bockel was more than 22 minutes behind her Rona teammate.
The men saw a much tighter race, with Wherry entering the day with only 44 seconds lead over teammate Scott Moninger, and 1:36 ahead of Saturn’s Eric Wohlberg. Wherry, however, took no chances with his lead, staying up front all day and then breaking clear of the lead group on the finishing climb. He was followed in by Danny Pate (Prime Alliance) – who moved into third place overall – Mexico’s Ubaldo Mesa (Tecos Turbos) and Moninger, all within nine seconds. A minute back came a group of four – Carl Swenson (RLX), John Lieswyn (7UP-Nutra Fig), Andrew Bajadali (Excel Sports) and Tom Danielson (SoBe-Cannondale). With Wohlberg finishing another two minutes back, Lieswyn moved up to fourth overall, with Mesa fifth and Bajadali sixth.
