White moves into race lead, Marcolini retains yellow
CAJON PASS, California (April 22, 2022) — On a brisk, blustery day on old Route 66, Tyler Stites (Project Echelon) stormed the 9.1 mile out and back time trial course with a time of 17:39, beating Xander White (CS Velo) by 18 seconds to take stage 3 of the Redlands Bicycle Classic. Tim McBirney also delivered an impressive performance, rounding out the podium and taking the Best Amateur jersey after finishing 22 seconds in arrears.
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“I’ve been looking forward to this TT for a while,” Stites said after the stage. “It’s a really cool course with good pavement, so I just wanted to go fast. I’m kind of a TT dork so I just love going fast. You never know how your legs are going to feel in the middle of a stage race, but I just felt really good. I took it easy on the way out on the downhill and on the way back just gave it everything. It was a lot of fun and I think I moved up a bit on GC, but we’re still on the hunt for yellow, so it will be a fun final two stages.”
Xander White’s strong performance launched him into the overall race lead with a slim 10 second lead over Stites heading into tomorrow’s downtown criterium.
“I had a really good day today,” Kiwi Xander White said. “We came here to win the yellow jersey and took it in a race that I really like. I really enjoy time trials. Tyler (Stites) pulled a ripper out of the bag on what turned out to be a really fast course. We have our work cut out for us over the next two days. Honestly, we haven’t thought too much about how we’re going to play it, but I think we’ve got the strength to hold on to it.”
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Women’s Race
Jenn Wheeler (Fount Cycling Guild) continued to show excellent form again today on stage 3 of the Redlands Bicycle Classic, powering to first with a time of 21:04, beating Maddy Ward (Instafund LaPrima) by nine seconds over the 9.1 mile course. Sprint leader Olivia Cummins (LUX-CTS) continued to impress, finishing third with the same time as Ward.
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“It was a very tough headwind on the way downhill, so it was surprisingly easier on the way back up,” Wheeler said. “It went by a lot faster. I thought the course was pretty easy, just out and back with no turns, so it suited me. I hadn’t been in it for a long time, so I didn’t really know what to expect. When I crossed the line, I thought I had a good day, but I didn’t know what that meant in this field. So, I was pretty surprised.”
Race leader Emily Marcolini (3T/Q+M) finished 10th on the stage, 44 seconds off the pace of Wheeler, but it was enough to keep her in the yellow jersey by 1:01 over Colombian road champion Diana Peñuela (DNA Pro Cycling). Maddy Ward (Instafund LaPrima) sits in third at 2:31.
“The main goal for today was to try and put a little more time into the GC,” Marcolini said. “I was definitely feeling yesterday’s effort in the legs today. I didn’t quite have the ability to put as much into the pedals as I wanted or needed to. I also had a little bit of a mishap at the start ramp. My foot actually came unclipped, I actually had to clip back in, so that threw me off my game a little. I was able to keep my head down and push as hard as I could and hope that it was enough.”