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Tour of the Gila Stage 2: Brochner, 20, sprints ahead of experienced pros

May 2, 2014
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Men's stage 2 finish. Photo Credit: Mitchell Clinton
Men’s Stage 2 finish. Photo credit: Mitchell Clinton

On Thursday, Nicholai Brochner (Bissell Development Team) won Stage 2 of the Tour of the Gila in a field sprint. Brochner, a 20-year-old Danish rider,  unleashed his final kick during the Inner Loop Road race at the opportune moment ahead of Eric Young (Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies) and NRC leader Travis McCabe (Team Smartstop).  As with Wednesday’s first stage, there was a crash during Thursday’s event, which affected McCabe. The incident wasn’t as serious as the previous day’s. McCabe was able to get back to the group and finish third.

The stage was relatively short at 120 km. A three-man breakaway in the men’s race established itself early, with Danny Summerhill (UnitedHealthcare) becoming the virtual race leader when the gap was at its largest, five minutes. Toward the end of the stage, Canadian Adam de Vos (H&R Block) was able bridge a two-minute gap with Stefano Barberi (California Giant Strawberry) to join the remnants of the day’s move that included Summerhill and Mexican national champion Luis Davila (Jelly Belly presented by Maxxis). The break still had a minute with 10 km to go; however, the long downhill toward Fort Bayard meant that the break couldn’t hold off the speed of the main bunch. Ultimately, the escapees were caught with 5km remaining.

Rob Britton (Team Smarstop) was the top Canadian finisher on the stage in 13th. The men’s GC was virtually unchanged after the second stage.

Carmen Small (DNA Cycling – K4) won the women’s stage. She out kicked Team Tibco/To the Top teammates Joanne Kiesanowski and Lauren Stephens in what was a long, drawn-out sprint into a headwind. UnitedHealthcare’s Allison Powers had launched a futile attack with 500 m remaining on the stage. The headwind was clearly too much for an effort that far out. Small managed to chase her down and hold onto her speed just barely to take the stage win.

Jasmin Glaesser (Tibco/To the Top) came across the line to place seventh on the stage as the top Canadian finisher in the women’s field.

Complete results of all the classifications can be found at the Tour of the Gila. Stage 3 is Friday, the 26-km Tyrone Mine time trial. It’ll be a real test of strength and will likely shake up the GC ahead of the criterium.