NOW men-Gila Final day

Sunday, May 2, 2010
Stage 5 - Gila Monster RR
And Final Results

Another epic day at Tour of the Gila. Another challenging course: 105.7 miles... 9,131 feet of climbing... 8,252 feet of descent. (For the Cat 2 Men: 102.6 miles with 894 feet of climbing.) Racing against some of the best names in the sport. The Gila Monster Road Race lived up to the notoriety.

The day began with a raging tailwind driving the field forward at 40mph. The wind continued to blow hard all day. The cold never let up. In the higher altitudes, the men faced snow. They then descended into rain and back into snow with each climb throughout the day.

There were big crashes early on, fortunately our riders avoided. Sergio Hernandez had a good ride today. He was in the first chase group behind a break of 10 or 12 that held for most of the race. Sergio was right off being in that lead group. He finished 31st, a lot of very strong riders finished behind him. Corey Farrell also toughed out Stage 5, and finished 89th. Danny Heeley rode well all day and unfortunately crashed, going down rather hard. He is okay and walked away from the crash. Final GC: Sergio 53rd, Corey 92nd. It should be noted that to finish this race is a serious notch in the belt for any rider. Of the 177 Pro Men who raced Stage 1, only 101 finished Stage 5.

Darren Lill of Fly V won Stage 5. Levi Leipheimer won the overall for the 2nd year in a row. Tom Danielson (DZ Nuts) was 2nd overall. Phi Zajicek (Fly V) 3rd and Dave Zabriskie (DZ Nuts) 4th. All results are posted online. http://tourofthegila.com/

The Cat 2 Men began 45 minutes ahead of the Pro Men so they faced the same conditions. Cory Greenberg placed 40, Aaron Schneider 44. Kit Karzen fought against the altitude and gave it all he had. Final GC: Cory 31st, Aaron 44. Of the 79 Cat 2 Men who raced Stage 1, only 47 finished Stage 5. This experience will certainly pay dividends for all 6 of our riders.

Congratulations to all on their epic battle against the Gila Monster! Thanks to Team Director Kurt Stockton for all his support, daily briefings and Tweets!

In Other News:

Congratulations to Will Chesebro for winning the Defi Sportif circuit race today, his first win!!

Nice job masters men at Signal Hill! In addition to Jens Wallrabe's great report on the 40+ 4/5, Barry Fink got 12th in the 30+ 3/4.