Amgen Women's Race: Rivera wins stage 3 in Sacramento

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Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) won a chaotic sprint in downtown Sacramento to take the third stage of the Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease Women's Race empowered with SRAM. Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) maintained her lead in the general classification, but after losing valuable seconds at the intermediate sprint now sits only one second ahead of rival Anna van der Breggen.

"As a Dutch team, and there was some wind out there today, we tried to put it in the gutter a couple of times and get everyone suffering," Rivera said. "It didn't quite work out the way we wanted it to, but then we just refocused on the leadout for the finish. The girls were perfect, there was some chaos on the side, but we stuck to the plan, and we executed perfectly."

Before the race, the directors of UnitedHealthcare and Boels Dolmans mulled over their respective team's strategies.

"There are a lot of good sprinters here. Bronzini, Kirsten Wild and Coryn [Rivera} who is on home soil and will be super fired up," Rachel Heal, UHC director said. "I'm going to be sensible. I'm not going to put Katie Hall up against the sprinters, but if the sprinters do their job that works well for us."

Boels Dolmans director Bram Sevens was hoping to rely on increasing wind throughout the day to claw back three seconds from Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare.)

"I think it is Dutch style racing for sure," Sevens said. "I have a good plan in my head, and this morning I talk about it to the girls, we keep fighting."

The flat 108 km stage started in Elk Grove, CA and the forecasted windy conditions, normal for California's Central Valley, never materialized to the satisfaction of Boels-Dolmans or Sunweb, who wanted to split the field as much as possible. The intermediate sprint, at 88.5 km into the race, was the primary focus of Boels Dolmans and UHC for most of the day. The fast downtown finish, outside of California's State Capitol, was ideally suited for sprinters comfortable on hectic finishes like Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle High5) and Kirsten Wild (Cylance Pro Cycling.)

Early race activity was quickly neutralized by the peloton until Ingrid Drexel (Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank), Erica Allar (Rally Cycling), and Scotti Lechuga (Hagens Berman - Supermint) drove the biggest split of the day. The trio drove their lead up to over a minute which forced Boels Dolmans and Canyon to the front of the field to bring the move back with 68 km to go.

Boels Dolmans maintained control of the peloton but were unable to win the intermediate sprint, which was taken by Arlenis Sierra (Astana Women's Team). Anna van der Breggen came in second, earning a two second time bonus and bringing her within one second of Hall in the GC.

"We tried to get the seconds and I'm happy with the two seconds, but I needed three," van der Breggen said. "Tomorrow there is one more intermediate sprint, and of course the final sprint but that is really hard against all the big sprinters. We try again tomorrow."

Mandy Heintz (Visit Dallas-DNA Pro Cycling) attacked after the intermediate sprint and gained a lead of 40 seconds over the field in the final 20 km of the race. Heintz's move forced UnitedHealthcare to the front as the field approached Sacramento. The field caught Heintz with several km to go, but her effort earned her the Most Courageous Rider Jersey.

Back in the field, several of the sprinters began to experience issues. Bronzini flatted with 15 km to go but was able to chase back on. Kirsten Wild then punctured with under 3 km to go, taking her out of the finale. In the final 2 km, anarchy took over.

"Chaos, really chaos," Bronzini said about the finish. "There was a couple of crashes I was lucky not to be involved in today."

Juliette Labous started up Team Sunweb's sprint train, and Rivera kept her squad tight as the field began to charge. Rivera glued herself to Leah Kirchmann's wheel and outkicked Sierra and Bronzini to win the race.

Due to bonus seconds from the intermediate sprint, and her second place in the stage, Sierra moved into the Best Young Rider Jersey and Sprint Jersey. Heading into Sunday's 70 km criterium-style circuit Katie Hall now leads the GC by only one second over van der Breggen. Van der Breggen feels the race win is still within reach.

"In Holland, we also have some crits, and I'm used to that," van der Breggen said. "The team I'm with now, they are motivated to get those seconds, but it is going to be hard anyway. Especially on a lap like that anything can happen, so you need to stay in front." 

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