Gage Hecht was part of a four-man breakaway that whittled down to one late on the opening stage of the Colorado Classic pro road cycling event. Hecht, a 20-year-old from Parker, held off the peloton en route to a victory that surprised the rest of the field.
Thursday’s Stage 1 was 64.1 miles with 4,390 feet of climbing. A total of 89 riders completed eight laps around the town of Vail. Durango’s Christopher Blevins, 20, finished fifth.
The route featured a dirt climb of Mill Creek Road and one King of the Mountain zone. While the peloton wasn’t able to reel in Hecht before the finish line, a total of 43 riders finished within six seconds of the lead.
Hecht, who rides for the Aevolo team, won the stage in 2 hours, 32 minutes, 44 seconds. Travis McCabe of the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team finished second in a sprint to the line with Joe Lewis of the Holowesko Citadel team. McCabe, who won two sprints at the Tour of Utah last week, was second, 12 seconds behind Hecht, while Lewis was third, 14 seconds behind.
“I didn’t really expect at all to be able to make that move,” Hecht said in a Colorado Classic news release. “I thought I’d give it one final attack, get some last TV coverage, get my name out there, hang on as best I could. It’s really big to win a race this big in my home state. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet.”
It appeared many riders in the peloton were unaware that Hecht had maintained his solo break.
“I think that a lot of people didn’t, honestly, me included,” Blevins said. “We knew Gage was off kind of dangling on the back straight, but then I was fighting for position. We assumed he was brought back. We were not going easy at all, and he was hanging in a headwind. That was a phenomenal effort for Gage.”
Blevins was five seconds behind Hecht’s time. Last Sunday, Blevins placed second in the under-23 cross-country mountain bike World Cup race at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada. It was his first mountain bike World Cup podium.
Travel issues delayed Blevins’ return to Denver to join up with his Hagens Berman Axeon road team, but he showed no rust in his first road race since the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships in late June.
“I felt pretty good, honestly,” Blevins said. “The course was kind of well-suited for a mountain biker, I’d say. There was that dirt climb that was fairly steep and not the best dirt. The length was also what you see on a World Cup course in a climb. I felt super at home there, and it didn’t take long to adjust. Just a bit of adjusting getting into the flow of the peloton.”
Also in the group of riders six seconds off the lead was Durango’s Griffin Easter, who finished 14th. The 303Project team rider and former Fort Lewis College national champion continued to show strong form after he finished 27th at last week’s Tour of Utah. He also earned the Tour of Utah’s most aggressive rider jersey after Stage 2 in Utah.
“I was definitely feeling tired from Utah from last week,” Easter said. “It took the legs time to warm up. My body got a kick-start and the pistons were firing by the end of the day. It was a good sensation.”
Easter’s brother Cullen, a Colorado Mesa University alum and fellow 303Project rider, placed 50th on Thursday. He was 1:40 back of Hecht.
Hecht claimed the leader’s jersey, sprinter and KOM jersey along with the best young rider jersey for his effort Thursday. Riders will try to crack into his lead with the Vail Pass time trial Friday. The 9.87-mile course climbs 1,574 feet to a mountain finish near the top of Vail Pass.
“The (time trial) is one of the most famous (time trials) in America,” Blevins said. “Vail is an awesome town to host it, as well. The race will mostly be decided on this time trial this year.”
The race will transition to Denver for Stages 3 and 4. Saturday’s queen stage is 100 miles with 8,133 feet of climbing on a route that passes Coors Field, travels to Golden and over Lookout Mountain, through Red Rocks Park and into Evergreen.
After climbing Indian Hills and going over Dinosaur Ridge, the riders face a tough sprint from Wheat Ridge High School to the Denver finish line.
Sunday’s final stage is a circuit through downtown Denver. It features eight laps around a 9.1-mile loop.
The Colorado Classic is in its second year. It replaced the defunct USA Pro Challenge, which ran from 2011-15.
The event also features a women’s race. The women completed four laps for a total of 35.2 miles on the course Thursday. Rebecca Wiasak, an Australian on the Fearless Femme team, won ahead of Lex Albrecht and Kendall Ryan, a pair of TIBCO-Sillicon Valley Bank team riders.
Wiasak finished in 1:22:51. Albrecht was second in 1:22:55, and Ryan was third in 1:22:57.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
