Kabush Takes Stage 2 While Jena Greaser Wins the Day and Leads the Women’s GC
Written by: Shannon Boffeli and Marlee Dixon
Stage 2 of Moab Rocks is a stark contrast to day two. After a day filled with climbing, climbing, and more climbing, stage 2 offers up a fast, power course with no climbs lasting longer than 5 minutes.
The course encompasses the trails of the Klondike Bluffs riding area and packs in 2,700 feet of climbing in the form of unrelenting, short, power climbs. The climbs are followed by rugged slickrock descents with plenty of technical features to keep riders on their toes.
Open Men
With a 3-mile flat road section right off the start, stage 2 got off to a fast start with rider battling for the front before the singletrack started.
Up front it was Boulder Cyclesport rider Chris Baddick driving the pace early on. Baddick flatted on stage 1 and gave it everything he had to take back some spots he lost on the GC.
Baddick’s rapid pace quickly whittled the field down to a hand full of riders. Once again it was Justin Lindine (Apex/NBX), Geoff Kabush (Scott), Taylor Lideen (Pivot/Industry Nine/Infinit), and Ben Sonntag (Clif Bar).
“Baddick was really fast today,” Taylor Lideen shared after the finish. “Every climb he was out of the saddle sprinting. He made us work keeping up. I couldn’t even get a drink for the first hour.”
And he kept it going for most of the day.
The fast pace was taking a toll forcing the chasers to push their limits. Lindine went down briefly around the halfway point and Lideen caught a tree with his left hand, smashing his thumb and loosing contact with the lead group.
Lindine bridged back up to the lead group but Scott honcho, Geoff Kabush had no interest in letting it come down to a sprint finish again. On one of the longer climbing sections late in the race Kabush attack hard opening a gap that would continue to grow until the finish.
By the line he held a minute over runner-up Justin Lindine.
Ben Sonntag crossed the line in third followed by Chris Baddick and Taylor Lideen, who held on for fifth thanks to the large cushion he opened up early in the day.
For all his early effort Baddick did manage to pick up a spot in the GC jumping ahead of Rotem Ishay (Jamis) for fifth.
Kabush will be looking to protect his GC lead going into tomorrow’s final stage.
Open Women
The leading women flew off the start of stage 2. The first three miles of the course are a winding, rolling, dirt road and from the get go it was a sprint.
A sand trap right at the entrance to the first singletrack threw a few girls off and they were off their bikes running to get back in position.
Once on the singletrack, it’s a slick-rock climb and already the women were beginning to spread out with Jena Greaser leading the way.
In a strong position for the entire road, Jenny Smith (NoTubes) wrecked right at the start of the single track and lost position to Lea Davison (Clif Bar) and Ksenia Lepikhina (Tokyo Joes).
Maghalie Rochette (Clif Bar) rode strong and fast from the beginning maintaining her second place position for the entire day.
Today’s course was on Klondike Bluffs, a man-made trail system that includes a lot of punchy climbs, technical features and short descents. It’s a great test of racers power, quick thinking and technical skills.
Greaser had all of those today as she led the women from the beginning, finishing a minute ahead of second place, Rochette.
Davison finished a minute behind her in third. The overall GC changed today with Greaser moving into first, Rochelle in second and Dixon (Pivot/DNA Cycling) in third. Dixon struggled to match the speed and power of the top riders today with a lack of long climbs for her to get in a rhythm.
The third and final stage of Moab Rocks moves south to the Magnificent Seven trail area. The final day includes a nice mixed of both stages featuring some extended climbs, a healthy dose of slickrock, and technical descending.
Stage 3 will test riders with 3,600 feet of climbing over 30 miles.
Check back tomorrow for a full report and results from stage 3
Click Here for full results from all categories including GC after stage 2
