Tyler Stites (Project Echelon) wins Redlands individual time trial for the third year(Image credit: VeloImages / Redlands Bicycle Classic)
Stage 3 podium (l-r): second place Brendan Rhim (Project Echelon), winner Tyler Stites and third place Joe Laverick (Ribble Rebellion)(Image credit: Above Four Media)
Jerseys after stage 3: Tyler Stites (Project Echelon) in yellow, Stephen Schaefer of Landis/Trek Cyclery in the red KOM jersey. Quinn Felton (Aevolo Cycling) leads the Best Amateur competitions and Ryan Gorman in the green sprint leader's jersey(Image credit: Above Four Media)
Defending champion Tyler Stites set the fastest time on Toyota of Redlands Lake Perris time trial at the Redlands Classic for the third year in succession. His Project Echelon teammate Brendan Rhim was second, 15 seconds back and Joe Laverick (Ribble Rebellion) was four hundreds of a second slower for third place.
“It was a really fun course today, lots of twists and turns which was completely different than last year’s straight out and back,” Stites said after finishing. “I didn’t know if I was going to perform the same. I had a lot of fun out there in the turns and giving it my all.”
The relatively flat technical 11.7-mile loop included a pair of sharp left-hand corners near the start and then two out-and-back sections near the finish as the route navigated around the lake in a counter-clockwise direction.
“It was a tricky course, you had to really push on the slower sections, push on the headwind sections and float on the shallow/easier sections with the tail wind,” Rhim said of the course.
“It was probably the least consistent effort I have done in a while in a TT. I definitely came close to the edge of the road a couple times, but everyone was dealing with the same course.”
Stites solidified his lead in the general classification on his quest to win his third consecutive Redlands Bicycle Classic. Laverick jumped eight places to second overall, 41 seconds down. Owen Wright (CS Velo) moved up one spot, a slim one second further back.
Racing continues on Saturday with the Arrowhead Orthopaedics Criterium in downtown Redlands. There are nine corners on the clockwise 1-mile course, with three sharp corners hitting on the approach to the finish on East Citrus Avenue. The men will start at 4 p.m. for 90 minutes of racing.
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