Rally Cycling’s Colin Joyce finished second in the UCI 1.1 Winston-Salem Cycling Classic road race on Monday. With the help of his teammates, Joyce bridged to the winning move with 20 km remaining and sprinted for the win. In the women’s race, Kirsti Lay crossed the line in fourth place after her late-race breakaway attempt was caught in the final lap.
The men raced 13 laps of a 14 km circuit around Winston-Salem for a total of 178 km of racing. With rain throughout and a technical urban circuit, the peloton was strung out in one long line for most of the race. Kyle Murphy made the first major breakaway, but the race reshuffled a few laps later, and this time it was teammate Ty Magner up the road.
As the laps wound down, teams strong enough to chase down the breakaway dwindled. Joyce made a late race bid for the win by bridging to the front group.
“When I got to the breakaway, Ty Magner smashed it on the front the whole last lap to help us stay away,” said Joyce. “I then attacked on the climb the last time up and caused a group of four to get away. Then we were all pretty gassed from the effort and kind of watched each other and Sam Bassetti was able to slip away. Finishing second is bittersweet as the team rode amazing for me and I’m bummed to not get the win for all of their hard work.”
Earlier in the day, the women of Rally Cycling set out for eight laps of the circuit for a total of 110 km. The riders bided their time until the closing laps where they launched attack after attack in hopes of breaking the elastic that held the field together.
Kirsti Lay bridged across to a late-race breakaway only to be caught a few kilometers from the final climb.
“Sometimes you need to be aggressive and see what you can do so that’s what we did today,” said Lay. “It’s a difficult course so we wanted to be smart about where we used our energy. We hoped to split the field late or give me something to springboard off of. It nearly worked! I definitely would have liked to get a podium for the girls but we did everything we could.”
To read about Colin Joyce’s win and Erica Allar’s third-place in the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic criterium, visit here.
Winston-Salem Classic men’s road race results
1 Samuel Bassetti (USA) Elevate – Khs Pro Cycling 4:01:05
2 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling 0:00:01
3 Fabian Lienhard (Swi) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources 0:00:02
4 Diego Milan Jimenez (Dom) Inteja Dominican Cycling Team
5 Francisco Mancebo Perez (Spa) Inteja Dominican Cycling Team 0:00:07
6 Jonathan Caicedo (Ecu) Medellin 0:00:12
7 Weimar Alfonso Roldan Ortiz (Col) Medellin 0:00:18
8 Nickolas Zukowsky (Can) Silber Pro Cycling
9 Kevin Girkins (USA) Elevate – Khs Pro Cycling 0:00:25
10 Tyler Magner (USA) Rally Cycling 0:01:03
Winston-Salem Classic women’s road race results
1 Lily Williams (USA) Hagens Berman-Supermint 2:45:35
2 Arlenis Sierra (Cub) Astana Women’s Team
3 Diana Carolina Peñuela Martinez (Col) Unitedhealthcare Pro Cycling Team
4 Kirsti Lay (Can) Rally Cycling
5 Alison Jackson (Can) Team Tibco – Silicon Valley Bank 0:00:01
6 Flavia De Oliveira (Bra) Fearless Femme Racing
7 Sofia Bertizzolo (Ita) Astana Women’s Team 0:00:04
8 Emma Grant (GBr) Team Tibco – Silicon Valley Bank
9 Jasmin Duehring (Can) Twenty20 p/b Sho – Air 0:00:05
10 Jennifer Valente (USA) Twenty20 p/b Sho – Air 0:00:14
