Tour of the Gila
Last week Tiffany Cromwell competed in the Tour of the Gila, a five day stage race based out of Silver City, New Mexico. It was a tough tour with lots of climbing and racing at altitude. Tiffany lined up along side team mates Andrea Dvorak, Stacy Marple, Cath Cheatley, and Rachel Heal. A strong field of 80 women took to the start line and Colavita performed strongly.
The opening stage was a 115km road race finishing up the top of a 10km climb. Cath was Colavita's highest placed finisher in 4th with Tiffany in 10th.
Stage 2 was a 125km hilly road race with over 5000ft of climbing. The course had a long climb not far from the start splitting up the field with a select group of 12 riders forming a lead group. Tiffany, Cath, and Andrea were all in this group. They stayed away for the first half of the race before it was brought back. The winds picked up as the race went on and it got tougher but was set for a field sprint to the finish, the girls helped set up Cath for the finish and she finished a strong 2nd with Tiffany 6th.
The 3rd stage was a 25km time trial with 1000ft of climbing. It was another windy day in Silver City but everybody put their best foot forward. Cath continued her strong form for the team coming in at 9th and Tiffany 15th.
Stage 4 was the downtown criterium on a fast 1.1mile 4 cornered circuit with a couple of small climbs on the course. It was super windy for the girls, but the aim was to try and protect the GC riders and keep the race together. There were a number of attacks and small breaks with Colavita always represented. In the end it came down to a bunch sprint with the girls getting Cath into good position as she sprinted into 3rd. Tiffany finished safetly in 9th.
The 5th and final stage is called Gila monster for a reason as it is a tough 115km road race with a 20km climb to finish.
The girls were protecting Cath and trying to move her up on GC as she was sitting in 5th at the start of the day 1 second off 4th. The aim was to deliver the climbers as fresh as possible at the base of the climb so when an early break went off the front with no GC threats and Rachel in there, they were happy. At the base of the climb the break was still up the road but the bunch split to pieces up the climb. The climb began steep and Cath made the front group of about 6 but when it got a little easier. Tiffany was able to come across with a few other riders and was able to help Cath ut at the finish. Tiffany rode most of the last 10 miles on the front of the remaining peloton to try and bring in the last of the remaining breakaway riders and cover any attacks that may have tried to get off the front. With Kristen Armstrong riding strongly she was well ahead of the peloton taking the win but Cath took over the last 200m and took out 2nd on the stage gaining her much needed time bonuses to claim 4th on overall GC. Tiffany came in at 10th on the day and moved into 9th on overall GC. Kristen Armstrong (Cervelo TestTeam) took out overall honours for the tour from Alison Powers (Team Type 1), and Kathyrn Curi Mattis (Webcor). Colavita also finished up in 3rd in the teams classification.
Tiffany was happy with her form and results from the tour and thought that the team all rode very strongly and did the jobs very well.
Tiffany is now off to Boulder, Colorado for some training before her next major race, Tour of Sommerville at the end of May.