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BISBEE — The feeling in the 29th La Vuelta de Bisbee is whoever wins the Mule Pass Time Trial is in good shape to win the overall events.
Corey Collier won the 2.8-mile prologue stage of the three-day, four-stage event in the Class ‘A’ pro Class 1 and 2 division. Collier climbed the windy Tombstone Canyon and finished near the top of West Boulevard in 9 minutes, 56 seconds. Collier is on Team Einstein’s.
Along with 232 cyclists in all three events, the Colorado native had to climb 837 feet. They began in front of the Copper Queen Plaza. It ended the top of the divide, above the Mule Pass tunnel, on West Boulevard.
 (By Mark Levy |
Mexican racer David Salomon of Halcones finished second (10:10), Californian Michael Grabinger of Successful Living came in third (10:12).
Drew Miller, a 2003 La Vuelta champion, was one of the best climbers. Last year, Miller finished second overall, but he said his prologue time was not that great on Thursday.
This is the Flagstaff native’s 18th time in the race. Miller rides for Green Trek, based out of Phoenix.
“The guys who do well today usually do well overall,” Miller said. “On a ride like this, if you’re on, you’ll do well. If not, it’ll cost you some time.”
Doug Loveday of Ride Clean, a team that won the men’s Masters event team title last year as Grand Canyon, is a contender for the individual title this year. Loveday finished fourth in the masters (11:01).
The time trial was won by Arizonan DJ Hernandez (10:29), who was followed by Scott Conover (10:48). Hernandez wears number 316, Conover 347.
Ride Clean, with members from Tucson, Phoenix and Flagstaff, is promoting a message to ride drug-free.
“Our message is we’re trying to do it following our conscience,” Loveday said. “There’s been a lot of ethical stuff going on in our sport and in other sports. It’s not about calling out others. We don’t test at all, but we’re trying to partner up with the Agency for Cycling Ethtics. It costs about $20,000 per rider.”
Loveday, who wears jersey number 370, said Ride Clean should have some strong challenges from the Safeway team, who sport black jerseys, and the Construction squad, who wears yellow.
In recent years, cyclists such as Floyd Landis won the Tour de France but was fired from the Phonak team on Aug. 5, 2006, after a positive finding of doping was confirmed.
Landis failed a drug test that found he had a higher amount of testosterone to epitestosterone.
One of the women’s master riders is Kitty Farago, a 51-year-old visiting nurse from Mesa who rode against women 20 and 30 years younger than her. This is her fourth La Vuelta de Bisbee.
“My goal is to be in the top 20 to 25,” Farago said of the 34-woman event. “It’s a beautiful area. Just the hills are hard.”
Meshy Holt won the women’s event (12:09), followed closely by Maria Monica (12:16).
At registration time before the event, men’s pro cyclist Jeff Parker returns from a top-three finish in Stage 1 last year.
The 79.3-mile Sulphur Springs road race begins at 8 a.m. today. At 8:10 a.m., the professional riders are scheduled to begin, followed by the men’s masters cyclists at 8:20 a.m. and the master’s women and senior events. The start and finish lines are in front of the Copper Queen Plaza.
The riders will begin their race past the open pit mine, the roundabout and toward Douglas on Highway 80. They’ll turn left onto Double Adobe Road, turn right onto Highway 191, right onto Highway 80, then back onto Kings Highway, right onto 80, back through the roundabout and back into Old Bisbee.
The winner of the road race will be last in today’s Warren time trial, which begins at 3 p.m. at the south end of Vista Park.
It is a relative straight back-and-forth sprint at 8.3 miles, where they turn right at Arizona Street, head up on Airport Road, turn left twice, then head back down Airport Road and finish in front of City Hall.
