John Murphy (Holowesko-Citadel) won the rain-battered opening stage of the Colorado Classic Thursday, out-kicking Travis McCabe (UnitedHealthcare) and Logan Owen (Axeon Hagens Berman) in downtown Colorado Springs after a tough day of racing in inclement weather.
Murphy's Holowesko-Citadel team joined with Trek-Segafredo and UnitedHealthcare to pull back a trio of escapees that slipped away from the bunch in the final 15km after the day-long breakaway had been brought back into the fold. The field absorbed the leaders in the finishing straight as the sprint teams set about delivering their speedsters to the line.
Murphy powered up the centre of the road to get the best of McCabe and claim the first stage win of the inaugural race - and the first leader's jersey. Owen blasted through a small opening at the line to claim the final podium spot.
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"It was pretty wet and wild out there," Murphy said. "We had really good position coming into the last turn, a little more than 1km to go. Joe Lewis and Miguel Bryon were shepherding me through the last kilometre. I was the last guy, I yelled at them to start the sprint around 450m, and they paced me to 250m and did my sprint, it was a perfect lead-out, textbook. I'm super happy to be able to hold the power all the way through the finish."
The finale played out much as it had in the women's race, where sprint lead-out trains came apart and sprinters lost their lead-outs. McCabe came detached from his UnitedHealthcare train, but said the key was staying patient with the long finishing straightaway into a headwind. "I was in good position behind Murphy, he was just faster today. It was pretty chaotic today," McCabe said.
"The sprint was pretty chaotic, because we have fewer riders, it gets pretty crazy. Murphy had three guys leading him out. I came off his wheel and it was a drag race to the finish."
How it unfolded
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://ift.tt/2vNFM4A
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