US riders dominate women's tour early

DOUBLE SUCCESS: Race director Jorge Sandoval hands the yellow jersey over to American Tayler Wiles after her stage four win. PHOTO/CHRIS KILFORD

The United States national team was the dominant force over the first four days of exciting action in the Trust House Women's Cycle Tour of New Zealand.

From the time they won the teams time trial on Wednesday they held the coveted yellow jersey, with Megan Guarnier being given that distinction going into stage two - which covered 125km from Masterton to Martinborough and return.

It featured a bunch sprint involving about 50 riders and it was another of the US team, Lauren Hall, who not only took the line honours but became the new wearer of the yellow jersey.

Not so fortunate were two Japanese riders who were among a number to come down in a nasty crash about 45km out from the finish.

They had their injuries treated at Wairarapa Hospital while all the others involved managed to get back on their bikes and make it to the stage end.

Stage three consisted of nine laps of the Carrington circuit in Carterton (130km) and the action heated up with three laps remaining. A group of three, Tayler Wiles (United States national), Jo Hogan (Tibco) and Ellen Skerritt (HI5 Dream Team) attacked and actually built a lead of around one minute before being closed down going into the start of the penultimate lap. It was there a group of nine riders from a variety of teams broke clear and they extended their advantage to three minutes, before a sprint finish which saw Katrina Garfoot from the Australian national squad head off Guarnier and Lauren Stephens from the Tibco team.

Guarnier had now regained the lead on general classification with her teammate - and defending champion - Evelyn Stevens in second place.

Saturday's fourth stage covered 106km and it was the toughest of all, with almost one fifth of the stage being uphill - including the finish at the top of the torturous Admiral's Hill.

Just 15km into this stage a breakaway of eight riders escaped, including Lauren Kitchen (Australia national), Wiles, Guarnier and Hall, all from the USA national squad, Skerritt (Dream Team), Denise Ramsden (Pepper Palace), Kiwi Linda Villumsen (Ramblers) and Hogan from Tibco.

At one point they had a lead of three minutes and while that was cut to 55secs up the 6km Te Wharau Hill it was back to three minutes by the time Admiral's Hill was reached.

Hogan was the first to attack going up this hill but the American trio were quick to respond and they controlled the tempo to the final sprint, which was between Wiles, Kitchen, and Hogan.

In the end it was Wiles who prevailed by just 1sec from Kitchin, with Hogan a further 5secs back in third.

It was a double success for Wiles as she also became the new wearer of the yellow jersey in the process. Villumsen came in seventh, 2mins 25secs down on Wiles. Hogan was leader in the King of the Mountains section.

Yesterday's final stage covered 122.5km from Masterton to Alfredton and return with the United States national team in the box seat for both the teams and individual titles.