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Anna Hicks held the GC lead for elite girls from begin to end on the 2025 Tucson Bicycle Traditional, and together with teammates Sofia Arreola, Emily Ehrlich and Rylee McMullen the Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28 staff swept the highest 4 podium spots after 4 levels in Tucson, Arizona. The ladies’s Continental squad additionally demonstrated their ‘desert domination’ with particular person podiums – Hicks, Marlies Mejías-Garcia, McMullen and Arreola every incomes one stage victory.
On the lads’s facet, the chief’s jersey modified palms in three of the 4 levels, Patrick Welch (Above and Past Most cancers) was rewarded on Sunday with the GC title, wanting any stage wins however rewarded as essentially the most constant rider. Nathan Cusack (Kelly Advantages Biking) dominated three of the 4 levels however didn’t issue within the prime GC standings.
Hicks and Elouan Gardot (Fount Racing) took the primary chief’s jerseys with wins within the 7.2km Marana Time Trial on Friday morning. Hicks was joined by teammates Emily Ehrlich and Rylee McMullen on an all-VBR TWENTY28 girls’s podium.
“TBC was a implausible studying expertise and a very good likelihood to follow our teamwork. The TT was particularly thrilling for me—I’d by no means competed in such a brief TT and shocked myself with the win,” mentioned Hicks.
“Every day, the staff gave every part to assist me retain the chief’s jersey. Their help by way of every stage was extremely particular, and I beloved contributing to our every day stage wins. Our staff has bonded remarkably rapidly, and I’m excited to continue to grow and studying alongside these wonderful teammates.”
New for 2025 was the addition of the Rio Nuevo Criterium offered by Go to Tucson. The inaugural race in downtown Tucson was dominated within the elite girls’s race by Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28, taking the highest 4 spots within the race with Marlies Mejías-Garcia taking the win forward of Sofia Arreola, McMullen and Ella Sabo. Hicks completed eighth and retained the race lead.
Within the males’s night crit, Nathan Cusack of Kelly Advantages Biking Workforce took the win in a bunch rush to the road. Nolan Church (Above and Past Most cancers) was second and Luke Elphingstone (Kelly Profit Methods Elite) was third. Twenty-year-old Canadian Jonas Walton (Mission Echelon Racing) completed in seventh, which pushed the ITT runner-up into the GC lead.
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After two levels on the opening day, stage 3 on Saturday was the standard Sahuarita Street Race with each the professional girls’s and professional males’s races finishing 4 laps of the 20.3-mile rolling circuit.
VBR TWENTY28 managed the race, profitable the time bonus sprints and taking one other podium sweep, this time with McMullen crossing the road first within the bunch dash for the win and Arreolo and Mejías-Garcia securing second and third, respectively.
Marked by assaults and a mid-race two-rider breakaway, the lads’s stage 3 highway race marked a second victory for 19-year-old Cusack. Adin Papell (iSpeed Professional Racing p/b DNA Biking) edged Campbell Parrish (TaG Biking RT) for second place on the rostrum.
Stage 4 and closing GC
Headed to the ultimate day of racing for the stage 4 Oro Valley Circuit Race offered by Rutledge Dental, Hicks and Walton held the GC leads, however solely Hicks would emerge with the GC title. Contested on a 2.8-mile hilly loop by way of Naranja Park, the circuit race included 190 toes of elevation acquire together with a one-mile ascent of Musett Street, with sections of gradients reaching 7%.
Arreola took her podium of the race on Sunday, profitable stage 4 whereas Mejías-Garcia was second, with Tucson’s Cara O’Neill (Bicycle Ranch Tucson) was third in a six-rider bunch dash. From a 12-rider trailing group, Hicks was the subsequent best-placed VBR TWENTY28 rider in twelfth, which was sufficient to solidify her GC win.
There was a little bit of reshuffling behind her on the GC podium, however Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24 swept the subsequent three spots – Arreola in second, Ehrlich in third and McMullen in fourth. Kimberly Stoveld (Computerized Abus Racing), who was fourth within the ITT, took fifth total.
Younger US rider Cusack made it three-for-three with the circuit race victory, profitable a 20-rider bunch dash forward of one other 19-year-old Elias Saigh (Workforce California p/b Verge) and iSpeed’s Papell. Walton would end in a second group of riders 14 seconds behind Cusack.
Most vital was Walton’s end Sunday in that second chase group. He misplaced seven seconds to Welch, who was third within the ITT, and fell to fifth total Welch gained sufficient time to earn the GC win, going two seconds higher than Carson Mattern (TaG Biking RT) who was second, and 5 seconds higher than third-placed Gardon.
Outcomes
Girls’s GC outcomes powered by FirstCycling
Males’s GC outcomes powered by FirstCycling
