Cantwell claims a win, Vzesniauskaite a second

Jonathan Cantwell (Fly V Australia) captured the stage three victory at the Joe Martin Stage Race by outpacing Daniel Holloway (Bissell) and Aldo Ilesic (Team Type 1) in the bunch sprint to the finish line. It was the second win in two days for the Fly V Australia team after Bernard Sulzberger won the stage two sprint finale on Friday.

"One of our priorities going into the day was to try and go for the stage win and the guys did a fantastic job," Cantwell said. "We feel great about winning two stages. Ben [Day] got second on the time trial and even though we don’t have the yellow jersey, it would have been nice to win three stages, but two out of three is not bad. Our morale on the team is really high right now going into tomorrow’s stage."

There were no changes to the overall classification and Luis Amaran (Jamis-Sutter Home p/b Colavita) continues to lead the race ahead of two Bissell teammates, second placed Ben Jacques-Maynes and third placed Jeremy Vennell.

"The team rode very, very well and I am happy about how they rode," Amaran said. "My experience over the last few years on this stage was that there were always teams that help at the end, sprinter teams, so I was never in panic or thought that I would lose the jersey today."

The Pro men raced around three large circuits totalling 150 kilometres and 6,000 feet of climbing. An early breakaway of ten riders fled the peloton, with Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V Australia) the highest placed on general classification, 11 seconds behind Amaran at the start of the day.

"It was a good day for us all around because we had one of our riders in the break who was the virtual leader on the road for most of the day," Cantwell said. "We were hoping that break would stay away because having Bernie up there forced the other teams to work, as a high placed rider on GC."

The remaining riders in the breakaway included Corey Collier and Evan Hyde (Ouch-Bahati Foundation), Karl Menzies (UnitedHealthcare), Josh Dillon (BikeReg.com), Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefit Strategies), Patrick Bevin (Rubicon-Orbea), Taylor Sheldon (Holowesko Partners) and stage one winner Andrew Talanksy (California Giant Berry Farms) with his teammate Sidney Taberlay.

The breakaway gained a maximum of two minutes ahead of a field controlled by the fast-paced tempo of Jamis-Sutter Home. Amaran’s teammates kept the breakaway from gaining more than two minutes and picked up the speed on the final circuit to reduce the gap.

During the last 30-kilometres, Jamis-Sutter Home received help from Team Type 1, Bissell and Mountain Khakis, who were all interested in bringing the field back together for a bunch sprint. The breakaway was caught on the downhill return to the finish line, after being off the front for nearly 100 kilometres.

"It was a really fast decent and with about 15 kilometres-to-go no team actually took control for a leadout because it was so fast and the roads are narrow," Cantwell said. "We were committed to the train as soon as we picked up the breakaway. The boys did a fantastic job leading me out."

Vzesniauskaite takes two in Joe Martin, Powers still in the lead

Modesta Vzesniauskaite (Colavita-Baci p/b Cooking Light) won her second consecutive bunch sprint at the Joe Martin Stage Race when she captured stage three ahead of Laura van Gilder (Treads.com/DFT) and Erica Allar (Vera Bradley Foundation).

"We are very proud of the team for sure," said Rachel Heal, directeur sportif of the Colavita-Baci team. "We had success in Tour of Gila and the USCrits so it is fantastic to be able to carry it on here. We’ve seen Modesta’s form gradually picking up and we know what class of a rider she is so we knew her form would come out."

Alison Powers (Vera Bradley Foundation) continues to lead the overall classification ahead of Katheryn Curi-Mattis (Webcor-Builders) and Alison Starnes (Tibco). "My team did an amazing job," Powers said. "They were on the front covering everything and it was in our interest for it to be a bunch sprint. We have a good sprinter in Erica and it allowed us to hold the jersey for one more day."

The Pro-Elite women’s field rolled out to the large circuits prepared to take on two loops before making their way back down to the finish line. The 110-kilometre circuit race incorporated 3,800 feet of climbing and according to Laura van Gilder (Treads.com/DFT) there were several factors that stopped a breakaway from forming during the stage.

"It was windy, hilly and the GC is pretty tight so I think those things combined sort of negated the opportunity that we’ve had for a breakaway on some of these courses in the past," Van Gilder said. "There were no successful breakaways or solo attempts. Everyone kept everything pretty close. Some teams were very active to try to set things up and fortunately we always had a rider represented but nothing gained more than a few seconds up the road."

Team Vera Bradley Foundation did much of the work to hold the field together, allowing only a few seconds of leeway before closing in on all attempted breakaways before the descent back down to the finish line.

Van Gilder paid close attention to which teams would try to set up a leadout in the closing kilometres. She eyed off of teams like Vera Bradley Foundation, who were likely protecting their race leader Alison Powers and setting up sprinter Erica Allar. Other teams in the mix were Webcor-Builders, protecting second placed on GC Katheryn Curi-Mattis and Team Tibco, who had a strong presences at the front looking to capture the finishing time bonuses to move into the overall GC top three.

"It is a sketchy finish so rather than do a leadout we just asked the team to get Modesta into good position," Heal said. "She’s got really good bike handling skills and the girls left her in good position to do the final sprint. She was surprised to pull off another win but she knew after yesterday that she could do it."