Reijnen Wins US Pro Tour Challenge Opener

19 August 2014 03:53

Kiel Reijnen of UnitedHealthCare has won the opening stage of the US Pro Tour Challenge.

The last ever race for Jens Voigt was a 98km stage which started and finished in Aspen, Colorado and featured 128 riders.

The stage which started at 7,900ft, was made up of three laps of a circuit which 2,300 feet of climbing per lap with the stage topping out at Snowmass Village.

The attacks started early with Danny Summerhill of UnitedHealthCare, the first to get away. Summerhill soon had a ten second lead

Josh Berry, Ben Jaques Maynes John Freter, Greg Daniel. Matt Cooke, Lachlan Morris and Luis Davilla joined Summerhill to form an eight man group in temperatures of 74 degrees.

They took a lead of 1.15 which went out to 1.30 with 46.5 miles of this 61 mile race.

Josh Berry dropped off the front group and then dropped off the back of the peloton and then out of the back of that.

Danny Summerhill took the first intermediate sprint on the first crossing of the finish line.

With 35 miles left, the gap was 1.25 as Norris took the second sprint ahead of Jaques Maynes.

Lachlan Norris had take the first King Of The Mountains climb and took the second climb at McClain Flats.

Summerhill took the third sprint to give him the green sprint jersey lead with a lead fifty seconds and in front of crowds a lot bigger than the entire population of Aspen.

The gap was down to 25 seconds with 24kms to go, so Ben Jaques Maynes tried to attack. But Davilla went after him and the other escapers in Matt Cooke (Jamis), Jonathan Freter and Luis Lemus (Jelly Belly), Gregory Daniel (Bissell), Lachlan Norris (Drapac) followed.

Jaques Maynes attacked again on the final climb up to Snowmass and got away to take the climb.

With 9.3kms, Jaques Maynes was joined by Jens Voigt of Trek Factory racing. The German allowed the Jamis rider to get the KOM points at McClain Flats but as soon as the Jamis rider was over the line. Voigt pulled away.

On a long flatish road, Voigt was ten seconds ahead with 8.3kms left but just over a kilometre later, he was reeled back in by the peloton.

Javier Megias of Novo Nordisk, who finished 23 in last year's race, went with 3.5kms left. A fifteen second lead with 1.7kms left sparked a counter attack and he was passed by Alex Howes and Kiel Reijnen.

Howes of Garmin Sharp attacked but Kiel Reijnen of UnitedHealthCare got past him and took the win in 2.26.35 with Howes second and Ben Hermans of BMC in third.

Source: DSG