Megan Guarnier once again is right in the thick of the things as she bids to win her third straight UCI Women’s World Tour event. Guarnier was fourth in the quick opening prologue, three seconds back. Guarnier was joined by Evelyn Stevens in the top ten, six seconds back in tenth. Alexis Ryan made it three in the top 25 with a 25th place finish nine seconds back. The other Americans were outside the top 50 though not much ground was lost on this day. Amber Neben was 58th, Kristabel Doebel-Hickok was 62nd, and Scotti Lechuga was 84th.
Saturday will be a 64.6 mile stage. There will be regular stages all of the remaining days except for an individual time trial next Friday. The Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile wraps up on Sunday the 10th.
The 2016 Tour de France is upon us and five Americans will be riding in the event this year including most of top finishers from the 2016 UCI World Tour system. Leading the pack of Americans is Tejay Van Garderen who just finished sixth in the Tour de Suisse last month and also finished fifth earlier in the year in the Volta a Cataluyna. The other American in the field who has a top 10 finish this year is Lawson Craddock who finished ninth in the Tour of the Basque Country.
Peter Stetina and Alex Howes each have top 25 finishes this year, Stetina was 22nd in the Tour de Suisse and Howes was 21st in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race. The final American in the field is Brent Bookwalter whose best finish of the year was 35th in the Tour de Romandie.
None of the five Americans who are racing participated in the Giro d’Italia last month. The only American with a top 25 finish this season who is not participating in the tour is Andrew Talansky who finished fifth in the Tour de Suisse last month.
Beginning Saturday with the flat 117 mile opening stage the Tour de France will open with nine straight days of racing followed by a day off and seven more days of racing. After a second day of rest the races ends with five final days of racing. There are two time trials, one in stage 13 for 23 miles and one in the mountains in stage 18 for 11 miles.
The US team of Stephen Ettinger, Christopher Blevins, Lea Davison, and Keegan Swenson bounced around between eighth and 11th, eventually finishing eight and 1:53 behind the winning team from France. The US had Ettinger take the lead leg and were already 1:10 behind after that. They were fairly competitive in the middle legs, gaining five seconds on France over those two legs.
On Saturday seven Americans, including Davison, will take part in the women’s cross country race. Also in the field are Chloe Woodruff and Erin Huck.