Mejias Wins Inner Loop UCI Road Race

“The Tour of the Gila is one of three big stage races in the United States this season, and I am confident we had the right team put together for the challenges the riders would face,” said Nicola Cranmer, General Manager, Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24. “I couldn’t be more proud of how our riders performed, and taking three of the five stage wins was a tremendous accomplishment.”

The VBR TWENTY24 team roster for the Tour of the Gila included Emily Ehrlich (USA), just off her GC win at the Redlands Bicycle Classic. She was joined by the majority of the Redlands race squad including sprint specialist Marlies Mejias Garcia (CUB), Sofía Arreola Navarro (MEX), Laurel Quinones (USA), Nicole Steinmetz (USA), and Danielle Morshead (USA). 

The five days of racing kicked off Wednesday with a point-to-point 71.2-mile road race, starting at Gough Park in Silver City, NM and finishing on the notorious 3.8-mile Mogollon Climb. The narrow, rough road pitches up at times to grades of 13-19 percent before finishing at a cattle guard. Three VBR TWENTY24 riders stuck with a small chase group of 10, all ultimately finishing in the top 15 with Ehrlich in 8th, Laurel Quinones in 13th, and Mejias Garcia in 14th. Offering strong team support, 19-year-old Steinmetz rounded out the top ten in the UCI Elite U25 category. 

The Inner Loop Road Race took the riders along the Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway for most of the second day of racing. Seventy-four miles and 5,854 feet of climbing were on deck for the women, and “Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24’s sprint specialist Marlies Mejias Garcia lit up the finishing stretch into Fort Bayard Thursday at Stage 2 of Tour of the Gila after “surviving” each climb and turning on the afterburners,” said Tour of the Gila race communications. “I had to survive each climb, but the idea was to reach the end and have Emily and Sofia help me in the end, and that’s how it went,” said Mejias Garcia.