Stevic and Baldwin Finish 2-3 At Joe Martin
0 Comments Published by Unknown on Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 9:06 PM.
teammate Ivan Stevic try to climb into the overall lead in the final criterium.
Fayetteville, Ark. - Fayetteville, Ark. (May 13, 2007) – Ivan Stevic and Chris Baldwin delivered the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team second and third place overall finishes, respectively, Sunday at the 30th annual Joe Martin Stage Race.
Toyota-United did take the top spot on the podium by winning the team classification at the three-day, four-stage National Race Calendar event to maintain its lead in the NRC team standings.
Rory Sutherland of Health Net was the overall winner of the stage race, finishing four seconds ahead of Stevic and 13 seconds ahead of Baldwin. Stevic also finished second at Joe Martin a year ago.
For Baldwin, it was his second straight podium finish at an NRC stage race. Last weekend, the two-time national time trial champion finished second overall at the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, N.M.
“I feel like I am on top of my game, but there are some great guys racing in the U.S. this year – guys like Rory Sutherland and Ben Jacques-Maynes. It's going to be a competitive year.”
Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said the opportunity was there to overcome Sutherland’s six-second lead heading into the final stage, which was a challenging 85-minutes-plus-three-laps criterium held in oppressive heat.
“I know everybody felt we had a very good shot at it,” Jansen said. “But we could have used guys like Chris Wherry, Henk Vogels and Sean Sullivan today, too.”
Vogels and Wherry, who rode both the Amgen Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia for Toyota-United, did not start the stage race due to illnesses. Sullivan, who helped bring back a three-man breakaway that gained 11 minutes on Stage 1 on Friday, worked hard in Saturday morning’s road race to help reel in a three-man break, but finished outside the time cut.
Baldwin said Health Net did what it had to in order to win the race for the second consecutive time. Last year, Gord Fraser took top honors before retiring at the end of the season.
“I tried to break their composure, but they kept it together,” Baldwin said. “I give those guys (Health Net) a lot of respect. It was a course where it is much easier on the front, and it gets harder each guy you go back. They controlled the front.”
Health Net’s Karl Menzies won the criterium in a field sprint, with Stevic second and Sutherland third. Time bonuses of 10, seven and five seconds, respectively, to the top three finishers provided the final margin of victory.
Labels: Chris Baldwin, Harm Jansen, Ivan Stevic
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