Lachlan Morton scored his first victory since his 2013 Tour of Utah stage win on the opening day of the 2016 Tour of the Gila. The Australian broke free with teammate Taylor Shelden on the lower slopes of the final climb, pulling defending champion Rob Britton (Rally Cycling) clear as well. Shelden dropped back, leaving two leaders to battle to the finish. Morton finally distanced Britton on the steep, narrow pitches with 3km to go to the line in Mogollon, and put almost 30 seconds into the Canadian.
Behind, Daniel Jaramillo (UnitedHealthcare) surged forward from the chasing groups to take third, with new best young rider Sepp Kuss (Gateway-Harley Davidson) just behind. US champion Matthew Busche was fifth.
The race was fast and aggressive from the gun, but the peloton remained intact until the first of two loops around the towns of Cliff and Gila, where seven riders escaped in the hunt for the points classification jersey at the second intermediate sprint. Travis McCabe (Holowesko-Citadel) claimed the jersey, and kept ticking along with Michael Sheehan (Jelly Belly), Cortlan Brown (Canyon-Shimano), Bryan Gomez (Gateway-Harley Davidson), Jules Goguely (Echolon-Storck), Thomas Jondall (Landis/Trek), and Bailey McKnichgt (H&R Block).
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Unlike 2015, the breakaway was kept on a short leash, maxing out their advantage at around 2:35 before the gap began to steadily drop en route to the climb. The chase was disrupted outside of Glenwood by a dog who ran into the peloton, causing a mass crash at the back of the field.
On the rolling hills before the turn to the final climb, riders began dropping back one by one to the field, with McCabe holding on the longest before finally succumbing before the first pitches of the climb to Mogollon. It was there that Jelly Belly threw down the gauntlets, towing Morton away to his victory with only Britton able to hold on
More to come!
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