Juarez earned $7,500 for her career's first big win, while Chiotti took home $12,000 after winning the tour for the third straight time. Jimena, who recently won the Pan Am Championships in Columbia, said this is her biggest win ever, as she proved herself truly one of the world's best female racers. Chiotti, who has won this tour every year since its 1997 inception, hung on to sketchy form to persevere and fend off several strong contenders.

Jimena Florit-Juarez

Sunday's final stage was a fast-moving criterium on a short track, in Steamboat's base lodge area...similar to a NORBA STXC. Women raced for 30 minutes, the men for 45 minutes under sunny skies and a course made fast and smooth from morning rains.

Juarez came into the stage with a two-minute lead over second-ranked Ruthie Matthes (USA, Trek Volkswagen), while Alison Dunlap (USA, GT) sat third overall. As the women got underway, it quickly became apparent that Matthes was on a mission to make up as much time on Juarez as possible, as she attacked and dropped early leader Laurence Leboucher (FRA, GT).

Dunlap, who excels at this type of racing, sat right on Matthes' wheel after the attack, pacing herself for the rest of the race.

"I just kind of sat in, then with two laps left, went for the stage win," said Dunlap. "Ruthie had to do all the work, which was a switch from last year and the year before in the crit, where I was towing the whole field around."

The plan was to put teammate and World Champion Leboucher into position for the stage win, but Dunlap became aware that that particular plan wasn't going to pan out.

"It feels so good – I never knew what it felt like to win such a big race, and it feels so good. I definitely want to do it again..." —Jimena Florit-Juarez

"I was just going to sit in, then in the last lap set a real hard tempo with Laurence on my wheel," she continued. "Then she'd come around on the last descent and I'd sit back. She was real strong in the first half, then she kind of fell off, so I got the word to go [alone]."

While Dunlap rode off the front with Matthes chasing, Juarez struggled to remain in the overall lead. Every second by which Matthes led her was at the expense of Juarez's overall lead. Jimena rode in a chase group, eventually finishing a dangerously slow 8th place… just under a minute behind Matthes.

"Ruthie was making up about 10 seconds per lap," said Juarez. "I did the calculations and knew that 10 seconds per lap wouldn't be enough since my lead was nearly two minutes. As long as I could relax, focus and remain steady, I knew she couldn't make it up."

Juarez did stay steady, finishing 1:17 off Dunlap's winning time and earning the overall championship after three years of trying.

"It feels so good – I never knew what it felt like to win such a big race, and it feels so good. I definitely want to do it again. It's such a relief, and now we're going to celebrate!"

Men's racing went immediately after the women, the large field flying around the track in several groups. After a lap of settling in, overall leader Chiotti attacked the field, putting an exclamation point on his lead with a scorching run off the front.

Jerome Chiotti

While local racer Bryan Miller did follow for a lap before falling back 35 seconds to finish 2nd, King of the Mountain Roland Green (CAN, GT) rode in third before eventually being passed by Chris Sheppard (CAN, Catera/Klein) – who had won Wednesday's prologue time trial.

Sheppard had dropped a ten-man chase group, led by Tinker Juarez (USA, Volvo-Cannondale) and consisting of riders like third-overall Kashi Leuchs (NZL, SoBe/Headshok) and Steve Larsen (USA, L.L. Bean/Mongoose). As a matter of fact, nearly all of the leading racers (except Miller) hold national, world or Pan Am championship titles.

Chiotti finally crossed the finish a half minute ahead of Miller, sealing the overall and showing that he was feeling fine after five days of racing.

"I felt very good today and after one lap I thought it was possible to win," he said. "I think this is the perfect race for me – the past two years I felt good coming into the race, but this year I was tired after most stages. But today I felt very good – it's the first time I've won the final criterium stage so that's nice for me. And there was nice people and weather… it was perfect."

While World Champion Chiotti won the overall by more than four minutes on teammate and Canadian national champion Roland Green, New Zealand national champion Kashi Leuchs (NZL, SoBe/Headshok) showed he's a name to keep watching as he finished third overall. '98 U.S. national champion Tinker Juarez (USA, Volvo-Cannondale) finished 4th overall, while 5th overall went to Mexican national champion Ziranda Madrigal.

6th overall went to Jr. World cyclo-cross champion Matt Kelly, 7th to Pan Am champion Steve Larsen and 9th to U.S. national champ Travis Brown (USA, Trek Volkswagen) – who finished the crit on a bare front rim after double-flatting. A race of champions to be sure.

So it's "so-long" from Steamboat Springs, where the trucks are packed and thoughts on next week's world cup XC finals in Belgium. You don't think we'd miss that one do you?

—Ari Cheren, packing for Houffalize and reporting for MountainZone.com