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Matera, Italy - 8 September, 2015 - Tayler Wiles yesterday won Tour Feminin De l'Ardeche that finished in Caverne du Pont d'Arc, France. Wiles took the overall tour victory after holding the pink leaders jersey for four days. Wiles finished 27 seconds ahead of Lauren Stephens (Team Tibco-SVB) and 55 seconds of Rosella Ratto (Inpa Sottoli Giusfredi) in the general classification.
The Velocio-SRAM rider was guest racing in a mixed team, Reva Ladies Cycling, along with team-mate Loren Rowney, who withdrew from the tour early to prepare for World Championships.
Going into the tour Wiles had her sights set on making the podium every day. "Racing in a mixed team is always an interesting experience but I was lucky to be put with such incredible strong and experienced riders. We raced well as a team and they really helped me protect the jersey so I'm very grateful to all the girls for their help."
The final stage, won by Lauren Komanski (Twenty16 p/b Sho-Air) was again a tough hilly stage. "The stage started climbing from the start and a few teams took control and went hard up the climbs which I was thrilled about. There were several attacks but our team was able to control them, and other times we kept the pace high on the climbs to discourage anything getting away. On one of the climbs my team mates told me that the other GC contenders were struggling so I drove hard in the final kilometres. Komanski attacked but I knew she was a long way down on GC so she was not dangerous. I'm really happy to take the win."
Wiles, who has been selected for the USA team at World Championships in Richmond will go to US now to prepare. "I fly home and recover for a few days and then just do some last minute preparation before heading to Richmond."
The Velocio-SRAM team prepare for it's final race of the season, the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond where it's aiming to win the gold medal for the fourth year in a row in the team time trial.
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