Photo by Mitch Clinton
PINOS ALTOS, NM (May 4, 2014) - – Jamis Hagens Berman nearly swept the Gila Sunday taking all but the Silver City's Race Leader Jersey, won by Team Optum's Carter Jones. Jones celebrated his first UCI win of his career on the final and toughest day, the Gila Monster. Gregory Obando Brene (Jamis Hagens) finished second with Rob Britton (SmartStop) in third.
UnitedHealthcare held the GC heading into the stage this morning but unfortunately lost out in the end. Team Manager Mike Tamayo explained, "We had to play catch up. We pulled a rabbit trick on the criterium which was nice, but we knew going in today it was going to be a tall order for us to climb with the Jamis guys, those guys are riding really well right now."
To win the Queen stage, Colombian climber Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis-Hagens Berman) outsprinted Rob Britton (Smartstop) and Will Routley (Optum) also solidifying his win of the Freeport McMoRan King of the Mountain Jersey as well as the Southwest Bone & Joint Best Young Rider jersey. Jamis-Hagens also took home the overall Team Classification win and the PNM Sprinter Jersey with Luis Amaran.
"In the final 500 meters when Optum attacked, I was able to take the wheel and speed up in the last 200 meters," Jaramillo said at the finish. "We were three teammates of eight riders on the breakaway, my teammate Matt attacked at 15km to go then they neutralized him on the downhill, but I had forces for the counter attack."
Optum p/b Kelly Benefits raced aggressively after having lost the jersey during the criterium Saturday. "Optum was drilling it hard today," Roland Gonzalez (Marc Pro-Strava) said. Gonzalez had been in the break until the final climb. "They kept the pace pretty high."
The tactics worked in their favor in the end after Jones had entered the day 28 seconds down on GC. "Yesterday put me in a better position to win today," Jones added, "If we had to defend today it would have been a tall order, such a tough day out there but it was perfect."
"We rode really strong and our tactics played out perfectly," Director Sportif Jonas Carney said. "Tom Zirbel was on the front for 100 km, just killing it for this result. Routley was super strong and then Carter was able to finish it off. It was a great day for us."
After a strong performance last year, Jamis Hagens Berman went on to do very well the rest of the season and is hoping to do the same again this year. "This race was very positive for our team," Jaramillo noted.
Director Sportif Sebastian Alexandre agreed, "We won three stages, team GC, sprint, KOM, and second on GC. We are very motivated! This is a good show that we have built a very, very strong team this year."
UCI FINAL Men Results
Top 3 on Stage 5 - Gila Monster
Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis-Hagens)
Rob Britton (SmartStop)
Will Routley (Optum)
Town of Silver City Leader's Jersey: Carter Jones (Optum)
PNM Sprinter Leader Jersey: Luis Amaran (JSH)
Freeport-McMoRan King of the Mountain Jersey: Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis-Hagens)
Southwest Bone & Joint Institute Best Young Rider: Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis-Hagens)
Full Results:
http://www.tourofthegila.com/fireworks-gila-monster-concludes-near-jamis-hagens-sweep/