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Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly p / b Maxxis) wins Mogollon stage at Tour of the Gila

Lachlan Morton scored his first victory since his 2013 Tour of Utah stage win on the opening day of the 2016 Tour of the Gila.

Australian Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly p / b Maxxis) who with a great solo effort , 25 seconds ahead of the winner of 2015, the Canadian Rob Britton (Rally Racing) and 1 minute and 15 seconds on the Colombian Daniel Alexander Jaramillo (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team)

The Australian broke free with teammate Taylor Shelden on the lower slopes of the final climb, pulling defending champion Rob Britton (Rally Cycling) clear as well. Shelden dropped back, leaving two leaders to battle to the finish. Morton finally distanced Britton on the steep, narrow pitches with 3km to go to the line in Mogollon, and put almost 30 seconds into the Canadian.

Behind, Daniel Jaramillo (UnitedHealthcare) surged forward from the chasing groups to take third, with new best young rider Sepp Kuss (Gateway-Harley Davidson) just behind. US champion Matthew Busche was fifth.

The race was fast and aggressive from the gun, but the peloton remained intact until the first of two loops around the towns of Cliff and Gila, where seven riders escaped in the hunt for the points classification jersey at the second intermediate sprint. Travis McCabe (Holowesko-Citadel) claimed the jersey, and kept ticking along with Michael Sheehan (Jelly Belly), Cortlan Brown (Canyon-Shimano), Bryan Gomez (Gateway-Harley Davidson), Jules Goguely (Echolon-Storck), Thomas Jondall (Landis/Trek), and Bailey McKnichgt (H&R Block).

Unlike 2015, the breakaway was kept on a short leash, maxing out their advantage at around 2:35 before the gap began to steadily drop en route to the climb. The chase was disrupted outside of Glenwood by a dog who ran into the peloton, causing a mass crash at the back of the field.

On the rolling hills before the turn to the final climb, riders began dropping back one by one to the field, with McCabe holding on the longest before finally succumbing before the first pitches of the climb to Mogollon. It was there that Jelly Belly threw down the gauntlets, towing Morton away to his victory with only Britton able to hold on.

 

UCI Men's Stage 1 Results, May 4th

Number of km:   148.06
Average Speed of the Winner:  46.80 Km/H
Number of Starters: 180

  Pl  No.   UCI Code       SURNAME Name                      Team Code  Time/Gap
  1   61    AUS19920102    MORTON Lachlan                    JBC          3:09:48
  2   1     CAN19840922    BRITTON Robert                    RLY        @     :25
  3   16    COL19910115    JARAMILLO Daniel                  UHC        @    1:15
  4   184   USA19940913    KUSS Sepp                         GHD        @    1:19
  5   12    USA19850509    BUSCHE Matthew                    UHC        @    1:36
  6   86    COL19851206    ACEVEDO Javier                    JAM        @    1:43
  7   101   CAN19930901    CATAFORD Alex                     SPC        @    1:48
  8   11    SVN19831218    BRAJKOVIC Janez                   UHC        @    1:50
  9   33    GBR19950330    GEOGHEGAN HART Tao                AHB        @    2:09
10   103   CAN19910114    DAL-CIN Matteo                    SPC             "  
 

Full Results - http://www.tourofthegila.com/results-stage-1-uci-men-2

Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly p / b Maxxis) wins Mogollon stage at Tour of the Gila