Wiasak wins opening stage at Colorado Classic Women's Race
16 August 2018 04:37
Australian criterium champion Rebecca Wiasak (Fearless Femme) claimed the opening stage of the Women’s Colorado Classic, out-sprinting Canadian Lex Albrecht and Kendall Ryan (both Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) in Vail. The Australian profited from the peloton’s work to chase down lone escapee Leah Thomas (UnitedHealthcare) inside the final kilometre, then use her criterium prowess to attack at just the right time and her pursuiting strengths to take out the victory. "I saw the 1km to go banner and one of the UHC girls was off the front, so I was like, 'Okay, if I bridge to her and launch off her, UHC aren't chasing because they have a rider off the front. I think some other teams must have been scrambling - but obviously I was trying not too look back too often. I looked back a couple of times, of course you don't want to raise your hands in the air until you're safely across the line. It hurt quite a bit," Wiasak said.ADVERTISEMENT Wiasak, a former individual pursuit world champion arrived in time to acclimate to the altitude in Vail. She said that and the help of some guest riders made the difference. "We came out during the week. We arrived on Sunday, so we've had a couple of days to settle in. It always takes me a couple of days to adjust to a new time zone and obviously we're at altitude here," Wiasak said. "Flavia Oliveira is in the race, the Brazilian road race national champion, and Katie Compton is here, they're both guest-riding for Fearless Femme this week. To have them on the team, having the local knowledge, we've downloaded the ride to the Wahoo head unit, rode the course during the week, and I think that really made a difference because the climb was achievable, it was quite short. It was about positioning.
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