Armstrong drives TWENTY16-Ridebiker to big ATOC stage win

With four-time National Time Trial Champion Kristin Armstrong at the helm, team TWENTY16-Ridebiker upset the favourites in the time trial at the women's Tour of California.

Team TWENTY16-Ridebiker surprised the favourites to claim a big win (Velofocus) Source: Velofocus

Boels-Dolmans, containing current race leader Megan Guarnier, settled for second place by six seconds, followed by UnitedHealthcare, which finished 25 seconds off the 27min 33sec pace set by TWENTY16-Ridebiker on the 20.3km course in Folsom.

Guarnier was the big winner in the jersey competitions with the Visit California Sprint Jersey and the Lexus Queen of the Mountain (QOM) Jersey, taken from Rally Cycling’s Sara Poidevin, who suffered a crash on the course. The SRAM Best Young Rider Jersey is 19 year-old Chloe Dygert.

In the overall standings, American riders top the leader board midway through the race with Guarnier holding onto her GC lead and the Amgen Race Leader Jersey by 12 seconds over Armstrong (TWENTY16-Ridebiker), and two-time National Time Trial Champion Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans) in third place, 22 seconds down.

TWENTY16-Ridebiker’s Leah Thomas and UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team’s Coryn Rivera round out the top five.