Gila Stage 2: Alisha 4th in GC

Dave says: Alisha told me that today was one of the toughest races she's done (harder even than yesterday). Five miles in, the attacks had already started and it wasn't until 1 km to go that the last break was finally neutralized. There were some good hills and a crazy-fast descent on today's course but mostly it was the aggressive riding of the group that made things difficult as everyone wanted to move up in the GC. The front 25 riders were mostly together at the finish (Alisha came in 21st), however the field sprint created an 8 second gap that moved Alisha down one spot to 4th in the GC. CyclingNews. VeloNews.

Alisha told me that one of the best parts of the day was getting a call up to the front line at the start. Beforehand, the announcer asked her what her big results were that he could announce on the call up. She said "yesterday" and he was pretty surprised to learn that she was at her first big pro race. She also made friends with the driver of one of the support vehicles who kept her stocked with bottles throughout the 75 mile course. Tomorrow is the individual time trial where things will really get spread out. We're anticipating a bit of a GC drop (given the fact that I built up Alisha's TT bike 2 months ago in the garage and she's racing the World TT champion) but the last stage will have some good climbs so we're looking forward to that.

*Alisha wanted me to say thanks to her team, friends, and everyone else who has been calling and emailing her. Thanks for your support!