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Tour of the Gila Stage 3: Brown takes the win, Britton moves up to third

May 3, 2014
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Rob Britton (Team Smartstop) in action during stage 3. Photo Credit: Mitchell Clinton

On Friday, Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis) took a commanding victory in the 26km stage 3 time trial in the men’s pro race at the Tour of the Gila. Tvetcov’s victory margin was impressive at almost 20 seconds faster than current U.S. national time trial champion, Tom Zirbel (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies). Clocking the third fastest time of the day was Redlands Bicycle Classic winner, Joseph Rosskopf (Hincapie Sportswear Development Team).

As expected the time trial did shake up the overall classification. Carter Jones (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) took over the race lead after placing fourth. Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis Hagens Berman) dropped to sixth overall after losing almost a minute to Jones. Canadian Rob Britton (Team Smartstop) had an impressive stage 3. He placed sixth on the stage which moved him to third in the GC, only 10 seconds from the lead.

In the women’s race, Canadian Laura Brown (Colavita Fine Cooking) won the stage by just under 4 seconds ahead of Lauren Stephens (Team Tibco to the Top) and race leader Mara Abbott (UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling). Jasmin Gaesser (Team Tibco to the Top) placed ninth, 1min 20 slower.

Abbott held onto her GC lead, Flavia Oliveira (FCS|Zngine p/b Mr. Restore) and Abagail Mickey (Twenty16) are in second and third respectively. Brown sits in seventh in the GC, while Glaesser and Lex Albrecht (Twenty16) are in 11th and 14th respectively.

Stage 4 is the downtown Silver City Criterium. Many are expecting to see the sprinters come to fore, while the GC riders take a back seat ahead of Sunday’s massive stage five. Rob Britton is in prime position to possibly take the overall win in the elite men’s race.

Full results can be found at the Tour of the Gila.