Stevic Wins Tri-Peaks Stage 3 Criterium
0 Comments Published by Unknown on Saturday, May 19, 2007 at 6:44 PM.
Russellville, Ark. – The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team remains in position to score its first National Race Calendar stage race win of the season with Chris Baldwin and Caleb Manion less than a minute off the lead with one day remaining at the Tri-Peaks Challenge.
Baldwin sits in third place, 27 seconds behind overall leader Karl Menzies (Health Net presented by Maxxis) and 10 seconds behind second-placed Aaron Tuckerman (Team Rubicon). Manion is sixth, 54 seconds off the lead. Overall, eight riders from six different teams are within 90 seconds of the lead heading into Sunday’s 71.7-mile (115.4 km) NEBO Road Race.
Gaps of seconds may very well turn into minutes, said Toyota-United Team Director Kirk Willett, considering that the race finishes with a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) climb up Mt. Nebo that averages 18 percent grade.
“This is one of the hardest mountain-top finishes we’ll see all year,” Willett said. “It’s a little bit shorter than Brasstown Bald (the punishing climb in the Tour de Georgia) but with a lot of really gnarly switchbacks.”
Saturday morning, Toyota-United scored its 16th victory of the season when Ivan Stevic won the 55-minutes-plus-four-laps Tech Criterium on the Arkansas Tech University campus. Teammate Sean Sullivan helped set up the fantastic finish by breaking away early in the race with Frank Travieso (AEG-Toshiba JetNetwork Professional Cycling Team), forcing Health Net to chase down the move. The pair was not caught until only five laps remained.
“With Health Net chasing so hard, if you weren’t in the first 30 guys, you were off the back,” Willett said. “The field was pretty much blown to bits.”
On the final lap, Henk Vogels towed Stevic, Manion and Baldwin to the second-to-last corner. From there, Stevic accelerated away to easily win his second race of the season while Manion was just pipped on the line for second by Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing).
In Saturday’s second stage, a 5.5-mile (12 km) afternoon time trial in Dardanelle, Ark., Toyota-United placed three riders in the top 10. Baldwin was eighth (17 seconds behind), Jose “Chepe” Manuel-Garcia was seventh (20 seconds back) and Vogels finished eighth (24 seconds back). John Murphy led a 1-2-3 finish by Health Net in the stage.
“Chepe is really riding strong right now,” Willett said. “His form has really improved over the past couple of weeks.”
0 Responses to “Stevic Wins Tri-Peaks Stage 3 Criterium”
Post a Comment