Canadians double up wins in Joe Martin Stage Race

The second stage of the 41st Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas saw Canadian Sara Bergen of Rally Cycling take Friday’s win in Fayetteville in the women’s race and Silber’s Alec Cowan earn the men’s result. Stage 1 winner Diana Penuela (Colombia/UnitedHealthcare) held onto the race lead in the women’s edition.

Women: YAASSSSSS! Congrats @_SaraBergen on the stage win! ? Waiting for further results! #jmsr2018 pic.twitter.com/3PJh7U4a8o

— Rally Cycling (@Rally_Cycling) April 13, 2018

Bergen was fifth on Thursday’s first stage and her team felt remiss in not congratulating her on Twitter.

Remember that time (yesterday) when the team account started tweeting about the entire peloton and forgot to congratulate their OWN rider?! Yeah, that'll never happen again. @_SaraBergen – 5th on GC. #jmsr2018 pic.twitter.com/1lHUnl9Kd8

— Rally Cycling (@Rally_Cycling) April 13, 2018

Women’s Race

The field rolled out of Cedarville southwest of Fayetteville in the rain. Bergen took bonus seconds by coming second in the first intermediate sprint. There was plenty of climbing after the intermediate sprint.

Bucolic setting, cows seem impressed with how fast the women are mooo-ving on #prowomen #jmsr2018 pic.twitter.com/uTwKIC9kgF

— JoeMartinStageRace (@joemartinstage) April 13, 2018

With Rally and UnitedHealthcare pushing the pace, there were no breakaways. In Fayetteville, a crash took down several riders. The conclusion had Bergen beating out Chloe Dygart of Twenty20 and UnitedHealthcare’s Leah Thomas for the victory.

Twelve Canadian women lined up to start on Thursday. Maggie Coles-Lyster didn’t finish yesterday’s stage.

Men’s Race

Cowan was 13th on Thursday’s opening round, with Cuban Ruben Campanioni (Holowesko-Citadel) the winner and Marc-antoine Nadon of H&R Block the top Canadian in 5th. Twenty Canadians were on Thursday’s start line.

We will be updated from the convoy today as we receive information here on our twitter feed !!! Today’s stage of @joemartinstage is going to be 110miles/176km of rolling Arkansas terrain. Looks like our riders may be a little wet after today? #JMSR2018 #jmsr2018 #takenotice pic.twitter.com/vqGqUE58Zk

— Gateway Devo Cycling Team (@gatewaydevo) April 13, 2018

A breakaway of 10 was away for most of the day but only two survived into the final 25-km. The duo were absorbed with 2-km to go. The race headed into downtown Fayetteville for the finale where Cowan prevailed.

#JMSR2018 We had @hoehn_hoehn, @denzel733, @tylerstites1 and @lancehaidet all finish around the top 15! Congrats to @alec_cowan of @SilberProTeam, winner of stage 2 of @joemartinstage! pic.twitter.com/XtlQcZeCrW

— Aevolo Cycling (@Aevolo_Cycling) April 13, 2018

Cowan is now fifth on GC, 1:06 in arrears of leader Campanioni.

The Joe Martin continues on Saturday with a 5-km, 5 percent uphill time trial for both races.