Armstrong, Abbott in first field
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong and Boulder’s Mara Abbott will be in the 12-team field competing in the USA Pro Challenge’s inaugural three-stage women’s race.
The event begins in Breckenridge on Aug. 21 with an individual time trial that includes an 8½-mile climb — which should heavily favor Armstrong, who won the women’s individual time trail at both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Games. She was the 2009 world time trial champion and left competitive cycling briefly that year to start a family, but returned in 2010 to prepare for the Olympics. Armstrong is not related to former American cyclist Lance Armstrong.
The addition of a women’s event marks the first time international women’s stage racing will be in Colorado since the Coors Classic’s 1988 event. The field includes women from seven countries.
Joining Armstrong on her team — Twenty16 presented by Sho-Air — will be Crozet, Va., resident Andrea Dvorak, who won the Cascade Classic in Oregon in late July, and 25-year-old Boulder resident Allie Dragoo, who grew up in Michigan racing BMX for 13 years, in addition to playing hockey and golf. She gave up a collegiate golf scholarship offer to race bikes instead, according to her team biography.
Abbott — a two-time winner of the Giro Rosa and member of the Amy D. Foundation team — had been lobbying Pro Challenge
Women’s USA Pro Challenge teams
These teams will be competing in the inaugural USA Pro Challenge three-stage women’s race, starting Aug. 21: • Twenty16 presented by Sho-Air • Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies • UnitedHealthCare Professional Cycling • BMW p/b Happy Tooth Dental • Pepper Palace Pro Cycling p/b The Happy Tooth • Team TIBCO-SVB • Visit Dallas p/b Noise4Good • Colavita/Bianchi p/b Fine Cooking • DNA Cycling p/b K4 • Colorado Women’s Cycling Project p/b Spark • Fearless Femme p/b Haute Wheels Racing • Amy D. Foundation CEO Shawn Hunter and women’s Pro Challenge race director Sean Petty for years to get a women’s event added.
The team’s biggest rival figures to be the UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling team — which also has a group in the men’s event — with Hannah Barnes and Katie Hall.
After the Breckenridge time trial, the women’s race will transition to a 65-mile stage from Loveland to Fort Collins and conclude with a 1½-mile circuit race in Golden, where the men’s race will push off the same day
for the finale into Denver.