Hall, Thomas go 1-2 in Colorado Classic time trial

UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling to defend lead in final two days

Hall conquered the 16km uphill course with a time of 30:06, finishing 26 seconds ahead of Thomas, who retained her lead in the queen of the mountain competition with 1 point ahead of Hall.

“Today was a great day for us,” Thomas said. “Going 1-2 in the time trial in both the men and women’s races is pretty special. While we have a substantial lead that cannot be overtaken from time bonuses alone, our primary goal will to keep our GC. That said, we are still looking to go for stage wins in the next two days. There are some strong sprinters here, but we feel confident in our abilities to contest the finishes in the coming stages.”

Hall said her uphill time trial effort wasn’t an easy task, despite her domination on the day.

“I went out really conservatively because of the altitude and I still suffered badly in the end,” Hall said. “Pacing a time trial at this altitude always feels like a bit of a guess because you don’t know how you will respond to the altitude. It feels really good to go 1-2 with Leah because we’ve been training really hard together all season and pushed each other a lot to get here.”

Team director Rachel Hedderman said Thomas and Hall used their strengths on the different parts of the course to great effect.

“The team has high hopes to keep our 100 percent record of stage race wins in the US this year, and today was a great step forward toward making that a reality,” Hedderman added.