SILVER CITY, New Mexico (April 30, 2023)  — Óscar Sevilla (Team Medellín – EPM) climbed to victory Sunday on the Gila Monster Stage 5 Tour of the Gila while his breakaway companion Alex Hoehn took the overall red leader’s jersey and solidified a win for his Above and Beyond Cancer Cycling Team.

Heiner Parra Bustamante (Canel’s – ZEROUNO) ascended his way into the polka dot king of the mountains jersey while Cade Bickmore (Project Echelon Racing) and Caleb Classen (Team California) left with the green sprint leader’s jersey and the white best young rider jersey, respectively.

But it was 46-year-old Sevilla, a Spanish and Colombian climber and former best young rider in the Tour de France, and 25-year-old Hoehn, who hails from Kansas and contended for king of the mountains at the 2019 Tour of California, battling until the finale.                                                                                                                                                                         

“I think we gave a show today, and all the people who followed the race were very entertained and excited,” Sevilla said. “In the end, I came with Alex, a great young, strong rider, and I fought until the end, but I could only win the stage, not the overall race. But I am very happy, I think the feeling is very good. Winning is a lot of happiness for me, and second place in the general classification is also very good. So we are very happy, the whole Medellín team, very grateful to the Tour of Gila, and we will come back next year.”

Hoehn said his team’s job was to keep his teammate, the overall race leader Torbjørn Røed (Above and Beyond Cancer), safe, but things shaped up differently.

“I was supposed to mark a couple riders, Sevilla being one of them, and once he went, I went with him, and that ended up being the break of the day,” Hoehn said. “The Medellín team worked really hard and they did really well, and then I pretty much just had to hang on Sevilla’s wheel and not lose any time on the finish in order to get the overall win. I just did some calculations and figured out we would be able to stay with the win. At the end of the day it was just an awesome bike race with one of the best riders in the world and I was just really stoked to be a part of it.”

The 100-mile race with nearly 10,000 feet of elevation gain rolled out from downtown Silver City, and attacks began from the second the whistle blew.

As the riders approached the first sprint point, a breakaway formed, and Brayan Sánchez (Team Medellín – EPM) took first place points. He did the same miles later on the second intermediate sprint, but the points gap was too much to close, and Bickmore retained the green jersey.

A group of nine formed a break right after the first sprint, about nine miles into the race, and by mile 20, they had a gap of two minutes and 10 seconds to the field and 20 seconds to a chase group. About 10 miles later, the chase caught the break, increasing the number of escapees to 19.

With three riders from Medellín and three from Canel’s the break, the overall race lead appeared to be in jeopardy for Røed, but Hoehn also was in the break keeping an eye on things.

As the 19 riders began the long ascent to the second king of the mountains point, many began to fall off and were sucked back into the field. A selection of Sevilla and his teammates Robigzon Oyola and Sánchez along with Hoehn, Parra Bustamante and Conn McDunphy (SoCalCycling.com) was made.

As the group grinded toward the KOM, Parra Bustamante dropped his five companions to score maximum points toward the polka dot jersey. Sevilla and Hoehn clawed their way back and left everyone else behind.

The three stuck together over the next KOM point where Parra Bustamante again put on a climbing clinic. But when he hit the descent, the smaller-stature rider, who had hidden behind tall McDunphy earlier, didn’t have anyone to pull him downhill. He lost time and separated from Sevilla and Hoehn.

Behind them, the field continued to lose time, going from two minutes to three to four. Because Hoehn was only one minute and three seconds back to the overall lead, he became the virtual race leader on the road, with his companion Sevilla only six seconds behind him for GC.

The two pressed on with time bonuses — 10 seconds for first place and six seconds for second place — to be had at the finish line as well. But even if the two came across the line together and if Sevilla won, he would still be four seconds behind Hoehn for the overall lead. He would have to put time into Hoehn.

But only one Category 3 climb to Pinos Altos remained, and it wasn’t enough to shake Hoehn. But Sevilla had enough pickup to cross the line first. Røed and the rest of the gang finished too late for an overall race win.

Parra Bustamante breathed a sigh of relief when he found out he won the king of the mountains jersey for the second consecutive year.

“Well, I am very happy to have once again taken the lead to be the mountain champion for another year,” Parra Bustamante said. “This is gratifying for me. We gave everything today. We went out with a positive mindset to get that jersey, to get this mountain title, as we are known for being very good climbers. We tried from the beginning to the end, gave it our all, and I want to thank the team, all my teammates. They motivated me, were always very attentive to me. I thank them for this mountain jersey, these points are for them and for the whole team.”

Bickmore said he was happy to keep the jersey after a tough day.                                              

“I just had to finish the stage within the time cut because I had enough of a lead where nobody could get me with the points on the line today,” Bickmore said. “So pretty simple task but definitely difficult. So, really excited to keep the green jersey, keep it in the team for another year at Tour of the Gila. It was really good to follow up on Tyler [Stites’] win in the green jersey last year.”

Classen held on to the best young rider jersey for all five days and stepped up on the final podium of Tour of the Gila to put an exclamation point on his lead.

“I think I’m the only guy to wear a jersey for the whole race,” Classen said. “I was super nervous about it, honestly. I struggled really hard at this stage last year; I lost like 20 minutes, This is a huge relief, and it’s been a goal all year to win the white jersey here. I knew I could do it, and I couldn’t have done it without my team today. They were keeping me fed all day, getting me where I needed to be, positioned into the climbs. They were phenomenal, and thank you for Gila for putting on this race. It’s so much fun — best race in the country I think.”

SILVER CITY, New Mexico (April 29, 2023) — Project Echelon Racing won the Tour of the Gila Stage 4 Silver City Downtown Criterium Saturday for the second consecutive year in a row, launching Cade Bickmore to victory and into the green sprint leader’s jersey.

Torbjørn Røed (Above and Beyond Cancer Cycling Team) retained his overall race lead at 47 seconds after he and his closest rival Drake Deuel (CS Velo Racing) finished with the pack.

“We wanted to get at least two of the intermediates and the race win today, so that’s what we set out to do,” Bickmore said. “With Tyler [Stites] winning last year, there was definitely a precedent to follow-up on. I asked him what the tricks were, and he told me just trust the teammates, follow the lead out, we have the best team to do it.”

Teams lined up on Bullard Street surrounded by onlookers and fans ready for fireworks, and with primes, points and time bonuses up for grabs, that’s exactly what they got.

Brayan Sánchez (Team Medellín – EPM), tied with Ignacio “Nacho” de Jesús Prado Juárez (Canel’s – ZEROUNO) for the green sprint leader’s jersey and only two points up from Bickmore, looked to take the lead and take over the jersey. But Bickmore and Echelon had other ideas.

The team set the pace for the majority of the race, dominating the front and often stringing out the field. A few breaks were able to get away as riders looked to pick up cash prizes on prime laps and sprint points. Sánchez picked up some initial points and later finished third on the day for more.

A break of Conn McDunphy (SoCalCycling.com), Cormac McGeough (Canel’s – ZEROUNO), Anthony

Hilligoss (Kelly Benefit Strategies Cycling) and Garin Kelley (Team California) opened up a 20-second lead, only to get reeled in by the Echelon train, who swept the second round of bonus sprint points, effectively shutting out Sánchez.

Robigzon Oyola (Team Medellín – EPM) emerged from the pack and went out solo until the third bonus sprint when Echelon took over again, and Bickmore picked up even more points to become the virtual sprint leader.

With about 10 laps to go, Xander White (Aevolo Cycling) snagged a prime and initiated another break with McDunphy and McGeough. The three expanded their lead to 20 seconds, and Echelon lost control of the front of the field.

As the lap counter dropped to two laps to go, McDunphy decided to go it alone. The SoCalCycling.com rider made it through the line with one to go but was caught with half a lap remaining.

“I just rode really hard to try and keep the gap, and then I was on my own, and then I had to just put the head down and keep going,” McDunphy said. “I thought I would have it with a lap to go. I had a good gap, but on the second corner I took a bad line, and I lost all my speed coming into the hill. I tried to get it back up, but at that point on the last lap I knew I was getting caught … I really like these American crits; they’re really fast and really kind of suit a powerful rider like me who can’t necessarily sprint. You can get away with it, so I had to try and roll the dice.”

It was then that Bickmore said it was left up to him to get the W for the team.

“We definitely had to use more guys than we were hoping to to bring McDunphy back,” Bickmore said. “So then I was left to fight for myself the last half lap. I had no teammates left with me, which was a little tricky. Last year I did that a lot, I’m used to floating wheels and fighting scrappy, so I was able to finish the job.”

Now Bickmore has a sizable lead in the green sprint leader’s jersey competition, 43 points to Sánchez’s 31 with only two bonus sprints remaining on the final stage.

Tomorrow’s Gila Monster final stage, a 100.6-mile road race with 9,957 feet of elevation gain, kicks off at 9:45 a.m. Røed will have to defend his red leader’s jersey with Deuel, Óscar Sevilla (Team Medellín – EPM) and others in pursuit.

Full results

SILVER CITY, New Mexico (April 28, 2023) — Hot off a Pan-American individual time trial championship, Walter Vargas (Team Medellín – EPM) blazed through the ITT Friday at Stage 3 of Tour of the Gila, clocking a winning time of 33:47 and elevating his team’s spirits after their overall favorite crashed out the previous day.

Torbjørn Røed (Above and Beyond Cancer Cycling Team) expanded his overall race lead to 47 seconds, while Drake Deuel (CS Velo) moved into second overall, displacing Ricky Arnopol (Project Echelon).

“I’m happy to be here at the Tour of the Gila,” Vargas said. “A very tough time trial and quite demanding with the wind. I’m happy to be able to get a victory wearing this jersey as the Pan-American champion in the individual time trial discipline and to dedicate this to all those who follow us from Colombia, from Medellín.”

Riders checked in their bikes to make sure they met UCI regulations and set off one by one from Tyrone into a mostly diagonal cross wind for the 16.15-mile, against-the-clock race. They started in reverse order of the overall race lead so riders most in contention for the red jersey headed out last.

Zach Gregg (Project Echelon Racing) hit the line with a fast time of 35:15 before his own teammate, Stephen Vogel, shattered it with 34:37. From there, Vargas rocketed across, his time holding strong as the number of riders ticked down.

Røed said he was happy with his effort to keep the red jersey.

“Looks like I increased my lead a bit, so that’s super nice going into the next few stages,” Røed said. “Especially tomorrow, just trying to not lose time, it’s going to be a wild one. I opened up hard today. Sadly my power meter didn’t work, but I stayed on top of it and went as hard as I could up the last climb, then tried to stay on top of the gear on the way down, and it went really well so that was good.”

Deuel, who finished fourth on the stage with 34:27, said now that he’s improved his standing, he has the red jersey in his sights but doesn’t have expectations.

“I think anything is possible on the final day,” Deuel said. “As we saw last year, Sean Gardner (CS Velo) managed to pull it out and take over the lead on the final day. I don’t expect anything, but yeah it’s definitely possible. I’m pretty happy with my result today. It’s definitely tricky pacing out there with the wind, but I’m happy with my performance and I’m looking forward to recovering and doing something cool on Sunday.”

Røed’s teammate, Alex Hoehn, picked up third on the day with a time of 34:12 and is inching his way toward the overall lead as well, currently in third, at a one-minute and three-second deficit. He displaced Heiner Parra Bustamante (Canel’s – ZEROUNO) who is now out of the top 20. As someone who loves crits, Hoehn looks forward to Saturday.

“Going into the crit, I love crits, so I’ll be looking to go hard tomorrow and keep Toby safe,” Hoehn said. “We’ll see if that results in anything. As far as the Gila Monster stage goes, it’s throwing everything against the wall at that point and keeping Toby safe obviously, then maybe possibly jumping up a spot and taking the race 1-2. I don’t want to speak too soon but obviously there’s hope and plans of that.”

Riders will make their way around downtown Silver City Saturday for a 40-lap, 43.2-mile criterium in a show of speed, smarts and strength. UCI Men start at 3:45 p.m. and the UCI Women start at 1:30 p.m.

Full results

SILVER CITY, New Mexico (April 27, 2023) — Ignacio “Nacho” de Jesús Prado Juárez (Canel’s – ZEROUNO) turned on the jets and sprinted to victory Thursday at Stage 2 of Tour of the Gila after a drama-filled day that took out the overall race leader and left many teams with injuries and uncertainty.

Prado Juárez’s win snagged him the green sprinter’s jersey while the abandonment of Miguel Angel López (Team Medellín – EPM) erased a 59-second lead and put Torbjørn Røed (Above and Beyond Cancer Cycling Team) in the red leader’s jersey.

“It was a tough day, to be honest,” Prado Juárez said. “The group was a bit nervous, and we had several crashes throughout the day. It was a race where you didn’t know what was happening. It was very confusing, but in the end, we knew from the day before that this stage always ends in a sprint. So, I am the sprint man, and my team supported me, backed me up all the time, and thanks to them, I was able to achieve a good result today.

Leaving Fort Bayard, New Mexico, attacks began to fly when the flag dropped, and a break formed three miles into the race. Six riders, Colby Lange (Project Echelon Racing), Logan Lakota Phippen (Team Novo Nordisk Development), Connor Pulvidente (Primal-Audi Denver), Aden Wardrop (SoCalCycling.com), Patton Sims (Kelly Benefit Strategies Cycling) and Sean Hollenbeck (Expeditors Elite) hit the first bonus sprint with Lange taking first, followed by Pulvidente and Hollenbeck.

The three held just over a minute gap for eight miles before they hit the first king of the mountains point. Pulivdente picked up first place points with Lange, Hollenbeck and Sims following. That group whittled down to three – Lange, Hollenbeck and Pulvidente.
The gap expanded to one minute and 40 seconds before an incident in the peloton near mile 18 caused over half the field to crash and eight riders to abandon the race: López, Matteo Dal-Cin (Toronto Hustle), Theo DeGroote (Toronto Hustle), Steven Willemsen (Universe Cycling Team), Jack Burke (Above and Beyond Cancer Cycling Team), Ethan Dunham (Above and Beyond Cancer Cycling Team), Orion Child (Aevolo Cycling) and Ethan Moyer (Rio Grande Elite Cycling).

“Well, today is a sad day for Team Medellín, with Miguel’s withdrawal,” said Óscar Sevilla, López’s teammate. “He is a very strong rider, a great leader, and we are very sorry about the accident he had. We hope he doesn’t have anything beyond the burns and scrapes he had. He hit a tree and had several injuries throughout his body, which is unfortunate because he is a great rider who likes to be very strong.”

Sevilla said now the team’s focus for Tour of the Gila has to change.

“The team was focused on working for him to win this race, but everything changed a bit, didn’t it?” Sevilla noted. “We were left a little strange, but Team Medellín is competitive. Today, we tried the stage with Brayan Sánchez, and we finished in second place, so we’re happy about that, right? But a little sad for the general classification. We’ll see what happens from here to the end. There are still many days left, but today is a difficult day for us.”

Toronto Hustle team director Ben Baker said Dal-Cin “is beat up but nothing broken,” and DeGroote has a broken elbow in need of surgery.

Nearly 80 riders were affected in the crash, according to race officials. Many had minor injuries.

Officials neutralized the race in the middle of the Gila National Forest, and because it was just before the second KOM, officials canceled those intermediate points. Riders stopped on the road at 18.6 miles into the race, assessing injuries and having impromptu team meetings for about five to 10 minutes before rolling out neutrally again for 11.7 miles to the bottom of the descent.

Stopping again at the intersection of highways 15 and 35, officials put them back in their original positions before the race officially restarted. From there, the original break of three riders continued, and their gap grew to one minute and 50 seconds.

At nearly 40 miles in, Nathan Spratt (Yoeleo Factory Team) abandoned the race.

When the break reached the second bonus sprint at 41.5 miles, Lange took first place, followed by Pulvidente and Hollenbeck.

The peloton let the group stay away until 20 miles remained, and they were all back together again. Attacks began again, but nothing legitimate.
Røed attacked to nab first-place points on the final KOM, followed by Xander White (Aevolo Cycling), Drake Deuel (CS Velo Racing) and Caleb Classen (Team California).

Although plenty of attempts to get away ensued, the only one that lasted was Michael Bouwkamp (Primal-Audi Denver). He stayed away until about five miles to go, and it became clear the group would enter a bunch sprint for the line.

That’s when Prado Juárez launched, leaving competitors strung out behind, including Sánchez (Team Medellín – EPM) who came in second and Alex Hoehn (Above and Beyond Cancer Cycling Team) in third. Close to the front was Røed, who will wear red tomorrow and who still holds onto the polka dot king of the mountains jersey.

“Super happy about sitting in the leader’s jersey again,” Røed said. “It’s always fun to lead a race, and I’m really excited for the next few days. Definitely not the way I like taking over a leader’s jersey, by the leader crashing out, so hopefully he’s OK but just can’t ride. It was a good finish of the race, some headwinds and some climbs and felt good. I went for some attacks myself, stayed up there and didn’t lose anything to Ricky [Arnopol] in second and just happy to be out there.”

Hot on Røed’s heels is Arnopol (Project Echelon Racing), only 11 seconds down and Heiner Parra Bustamante (Canel’s – ZEROUNO) in third, only 15 seconds down. Classen remains in the white best young rider jersey.

Riders will look to improve on their times or cut the gap Friday in the Tyrone Time Trial, when they begin going off at 9:15 a.m. in a race against the clock.

SILVER CITY, New Mexico (April 26, 2023) — Miguel Angel López, aka Superman, flew up the Mogollon climb to victory Wednesday on Stage 1 of the 36th Tour of the Gila, taking the overall red race leader’s jersey by 59 seconds and putting the peloton on notice as the man to beat in the UCI men’s competition.

The Colombian, a World Tour rider who has won a stage in the Tour de France, and his team, Team Medellín – EPM, worked to pull back a breakaway and launch López onto the final climb with just a few kilometers to go. From there, the man who was stabbed in the leg at age 16 while fending off bike thieves, never saw another competitor until many of them collapsed after crossing the finish line. 

“It was a beautiful day, and thank you to my teammates, Óscar, Walter, Duarte, to all who fought hard in the race,” López said. “They have done a great job, controlled the race very well, and Óscar was telling me about the climb from previous years, so he was describing it kilometer by kilometer.”

Attacks began flying from the start of the race, but nothing stuck as the riders went over and down rolling hills. A bunch sprint ensued on the first time bonus at mile 18 when Cade Bickmore (Project Echelon Racing) launched. His team had attacked at the front in the miles leading up to the sprint. Brayan Sanchez (Team Medellín – EPM) followed in second, and Stefan Verhoeff (Universe Cycling Team) picked up third.

Nearly 10 miles later three riders planned a getaway: Gregory Talpey (Expeditors Elite), Joey Bacala (Landis-Trek) and Spencer Miller (Kelly Benefits Strategies Cycling). Verhoeff and William Goodfellow (Yoeleo Factory Team) bridged and made the group a pack of five staying off the front with a gap consistently hovering around a one minute for 42 miles, or nearly half the race.

The break lit themselves up for the second bonus sprint with Verhoeff taking first-place points, Goodfellow in second and Talpey in third. With it, Verhoeff secured the green sprinter’s jersey.

“It’s a good start of this stage race in the U.S., looking forward to the next stages,” Verhoeff said. “We have three climbers with us, so we hope to get them in the front the other days, and me to defend this green jersey.”

Around 25 miles to go, the peloton put the pressure on and reeled in the break, instigating another break: Liam Flanagan (Kelly Benefits Strategies Cycling) and Patrick Welch (Kelly Benefits Strategies Cycling) and Ignacio “Nacho” de Jesús Prado Juárez (Canel’s – ZEROUNO).

They pushed their lead out to one minute and 30 seconds before Team Medellín – EPM and other teams at the front worked to bring it back. With just two miles to go, López closed the gap to Prado Juárez and began his campaign of putting everyone in a world of hurt until the top.

“We all trained very hard, and [Óscar] told me I had to attack when there were only four kilometers left, and we did it there and in the end, we won,” López said. “I think we deserve the victory because of the great work and sacrifice of our colleagues in our daily routines.”

Torbjorn Røed (Above and Beyond Cancer Cycling Team), who won Stage 1 in 2022, crossed the line in second place, followed by Ricky Arnopol (Project Echelon Racing) in third who nipped Heiner Parra Bustamante (Canel’s – ZEROUNO) at the line and Eduardo Corte Cordero (Canel’s – ZEROUNO) in fifth.

López said he and his team are ready to fight to keep the red overall race leader’s jersey for tomorrow.

“No, I think controlling the race tomorrow, we won’t have any problems,” said López, who also won the polka dot king of the mountains jersey. “I believe we have a great team, experienced people, great individuals, and colleagues, and in the end, it won’t be complicated. We can control it day by day.”

The white best young rider jersey went to Caleb Classen (Team California).

Tomorrow the teams will take on the 76.2-mile Stage 2 Inner Loop Road Race presented by Brian & Lynn Robinson/SW Bone & Joint Institute. They start out of Ft. Bayard at 9 a.m.

Full results