Saturn takes charge in Bisbee
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Looks like organizer Albert Hopper was right: His 25th La Vuelta de Bisbee may very well boil down to the final climb in today’s Tombstone Road Race.
Saturday was a double-stage day in southern Arizona, beginning in the morning with the Sulphur Springs Road Race. After a fairly mellow ride that didn’t see much action until the final miles of the elite men’s 79.3-mile stage, on a long, wide 5-percent grade back into town, Gord Fraser (Health Net) outkicked Saturn teammates Viktor Rapinski and Ivan Dominguez to claim the victory.
Nothing was getting away in the 45.8-mile women’s race, either, which saw Lynn Gaggioli (VeloBella) outsprinting Dotsie Cowden (T-Mobile) and Elizabeth Begosh (Team Snow Valley).
The afternoon brought the 10.6-mile Warren Time Trial, and in keeping with the notion of a “race of truth,” the women finished in general-classification order – and, indeed, in a mirror-image of the opening Mule Pass prologue. Manon Jutras (Saturn) won in 22:28, followed by a pair of T-Mobiles: Katrina Grove in second, at 33 seconds back, and Cowden in third, just under a minute back.
In the men’s TT, Rapinski turned a 19:39 to take the stage, trailed five seconds later by Fraser and a further 25 seconds by Sandy Perrins (Healthy Choice-Guru's).
The day’s action left Rapinski atop the GC, followed by Fraser at 21 seconds and Andrew Miller (Landis-Trek-VW), winner of the Mule Pass prologue, at 35 seconds. Jutras, meanwhile, had the women’s overall by 51 seconds over Grove and 1:12 over Cowden.
But Sunday is where the rubber really meets the road. The Tombstone Road Race contains two Category 3 climbs in the last 15 miles, with more than 5000 feet of elevation gain in the 65.4-mile elite race, and slightly less vertical in the 58.4-mile women’s contest.
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