Mara Abbott claimed her fifth dominant victory on the opening stage of the Tour of the Gila on Wednesday, this time putting a massive 2:31 into her nearest rival and upping her stakes for selection to the USA team for the mountainous road race at the Rio Olympic Games. But two-time Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong (Twenty16-RideBiker) is eyeing Friday's Tyrone time trial to turn her 2:34 deficit around.
Abbott broke her collarbone at the Redlands Classic earlier this year just before soaring to the stage win and race lead atop the Oak Glen climb. She raced through the pain of the fracture, but lost 1:06 to Armstrong and was unable to make up the ground.
"It was broken through but it was a horizontal fracture so it wasn't displaced, so that was pretty lucky," Abbott told Cyclingnews. "The funny thing was that I learned over the next few days that the most comfortable position was to hold my arm like you'd hold the bars. While I was riding I didn't feel it, I felt it in my neck and in my head, but I didn't realize there was something wrong with my shoulder. But when I stopped it was pretty excruciating to pull my arm back into position."
ADVERTISEMENT
Abbott still was able to show her climbing abilities, and the fracture wasn't much of a setback over the course of the last month.
"I spent some time on the trainer but it's funny. I live in Boulder, and a lot of people came to Boulder to get a chance at altitude, and they got treated to a springtime Colorado snowstorm. So I spent some time on the trainer, but in Colorado that's what happens in the spring whether you have a broken collarbone or not. I don't mind the trainer."
As for the Olympic selection, Abbott said she hopes the coaches take notice of her performance on Mogollon. Armstrong's chance to shine will come on Friday, in the 26.4km time trial. She holds the record with a 37:13 achieved in the last Olympic year in 2012, a good 1:20 quicker than Abbott's best time.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1WbZI8B
No comments:
Post a Comment