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Colavita's Haedo wins Gila field sprint, as Leipheimer retains lead.

Landis powers a long break, caught in the last mile.

Published: Apr. 30, 2009
2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila, stage 2: Colavita's Lucas Sebastian Haedo gets the win.
2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila, stage 2: Colavita's Lucas Sebastian Haedo gets the win.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Colavita's Lucas Sebastian Haedo won a field sprint to end Thursday's second stage of the SRAM Tour of the Gila in New Mexico, as Levi Leipheimer finished in the lead pack to retain his overall lead heading into Friday's time trial stage.

Leipheimer's teammates on the Mellow Johnny's team, Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner, slaved at the front of the pack for much of the day, keeping in check a four-man breakaway containing Floyd Landis (OUCH-Maxxis).

"Mellow Johnny's was doing all of it," said Alex Howes (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Felt), the eventual second place finisher. "We were all looking around at each other, saying, 'I'm really glad my name's not Lance Armstrong or Chris Horner.' They were just two-man team time trialing, it was pretty impressive."

2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila

Stage 2: Fort Bayard Inner Loop
Men: 80 miles (128.8km)
Stage winner: Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home) in 3:12:19
Stage winner's average speed: 24.95 mph (40.2 kph)
GC leader:Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny's)
Team GC leader:Colavita
Women: 77.9 miles (125.4km)
Stage winner: Gina Grain (Webcor Builders) in 3:47:37
Stage winner's average speed: 20.53 mph (33.0 kph)
GC leader:Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo TestTeam)
Team GC leader:ValueAct Capital
Up next: Stage 3
Friday's Tyrone time trial is 16.15 miles (25.9 km). The out-and-back course goes up and over a four-mile hill, finishing with a straight, fast descent that inspires some riders to install a 55-tooth large chainring.

The break was away for about 47 miles, emerging on the difficult Sapillo Springs descent. Besides Landis, the break included Colavita's Cuban strongman Luis Amaran, Team Type 1's Shawn Milne and Felt-Holowesko-Garmin's Caleb Fairly.

Another trio of riders dangled in no-man's land much of the day, containing Bissell's Ben Jacques-Maynes, Fly-V's Michael Grabinger and OUCH's Bradley White. The three closed to within a minute of the Landis group, but never made contact.

The Landis group built up a maximum gap of about four minutes as the race cruised down narrow roads through the scenic Mimbres Valley. Landis looked strong, riding in the drops up and down hills, tucking between pedal strokes on some of the tailwind-assisted descents.

Fairly's appearance in the break was key, as it meant his team did not need to chase to defend the second place GC standing of Peter Stetina, leaving the work primarily to Mellow Johnny's, Bissell and Kelly Benefit Strategies; it was no accident that the stage podium would be filled with riders from Colavita, Garmin and OUCH — three teams that did not have to chase because they had riders in the break.

2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila, stage 2: "A two-man team time trial"
2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila, stage 2: "A two-man team time trial"
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Amaran was the best placed GC rider in the break and was for a time the race's leader on the road. But he took only three or four water bottles during the break, and perhaps dehydrated, he cracked and faded back on the climb up to the massive Santa Rita copper mine.

By that point the pack was within two minutes and on a finishing loop of sorts through the town of Bayard, Milne attacked Landis and dropped Fairly with about three miles to go.

The Kelly Benefit-led pack reeled in the two with less than a mile to go, setting up a frenetic field sprint into the Fort Bayard Medical Center compound.

With Landis caught, OUCH quickly switched gears to deliver Rory Sutherland for the sprint. But Colavita's Davide Frattini helped get Haedo onto Sutherland's wheel, and Haedo jumped around Sutherland with less than 200 meters to go.

2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila, stage 2: Kelly's Neil Shirley in the chase.
2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila, stage 2: Kelly's Neil Shirley in the chase.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Meanwhile, Howes had positioned himself well in the tricky final kilometer.

"I was looking around at the company I had, I had (Kelly's Alex) Candelario, (Planet Energy's Keven) Lacombe, and (Trek-Livestrong's Taylor) Phinney, and I was like, alright, I think I can beat these guys," the 21-year-old Howes told VeloNews. "I was waiting, waiting, waiting, and I think I waited a little too long, I was rolling up on (Haedo) in the final meters, I don't know if I outkicked him or he was sitting up."

Howes' was the developmental team's second second place in two stages, following Stetina's silver medal performance on stage 1.

"We're happy with second right now," Howes said. "But we are banging our heads against the wall, we are right there, hopefully we can pull something off this week."

2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila, stage 2: Webcor's Gina Grain won the women's race
2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila, stage 2: Webcor's Gina Grain won the women's race
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Whether the team's riders get to the top step of the podium this week or not — a difficult task given the remarkable stature of the field at this race — there is little doubt that many of its riders will take over those steps soon, and hold them for a good long time."

Gina Grain wins the women's race

Webcor's Gina Grain won the women's race in a sprint after her Webcor team and Colavita worked to bring back ValueAct's Nicole Evans, who was away for much of the day on a solo break.

Evans, who built up a lead of about two minutes, was reeled in with about two miles left, leaving Webcor and Colavita time to set up for the sprint.

Race leader Kristin Armstrong drilled it coming into the last mile, tucking tight against the right gutter to combat the crosswinds. Grain stuck tight to her and jumped with about 200 meters to go, winning with ample time to celebrate.

"I went a little earlier than I probably should," said Grain, who said she had been cramping on the tough "leg grabber" rollers on the approach to the finish.

Earlier in the race, Team Type 1's Alison Powers used her descending skills to help establish a small breakaway coming off the Sapillo descent, but Armstrong stuck tight to her, and the break's members were not overly motivated to work hard with the race leader in their midst, Webcor director Karen Brems said.

Race Notes

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