Redlands Bicycle Classic: Ella Sabo and Jim Brown sprint to victory on stage 4 in traditional downtown criterium

Ella Sabo (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28) and Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles) claimed the bunch sprint victory at the stage 4 downtown criterium of the Redlands Bicycle Classic on Saturday.

Sabo outsprinted race leader Lauren Stephens (Aegis x Leaders of Enchantment) and Heather Fischer (Analog Racing Team) to take her second stage win at the Californian event.

Raced on the tough 1-mile course, attacks flew but no riders could get away in the 75-minute race. Sabo’s team controlled the front, shutting down moves and positioning their leader for the finale.

“Oh my goodness, it was incredible. That was a hard race,” Sabo said. “People wanted things to get away, but they were always there. The girls just bossed up. I’m just so proud of everybody. They all believed in me again, so it feels so great to pull it off again — and to do it here in front of my family is so awesome.”

“They were killers,” Sabo said of her teammates. “After a hard day yesterday, we were feeling it a bit, but we rallied and got it done.”

Stephens increased her GC lead to 15 seconds over stage 1 winner Emily Ehrlich (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28) with Jamie Chapman (Aegis x Leaders of Enchantment) third at 1:01 back.

There were no changes to the classifications jerseys as Stephens retained the QOM lead while Olivia Cummins (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28) remained atop of the sprint standings.

The event concludes on Sunday with the traditional 68.1-mile Sunset Road race where leads have been lost in the long history of the event, especially with time bonus seconds on offer.

“Tomorrow will be a battle for sure,” Sabo said. “But I’m glad to do it with this team.”

In the men’s 90-minute race, Brown timed his sprint perfectly to take the win. Luke Elphingstone (Project Echelon) was second and Alejandro Che (Kelly Benefits Cycling) took third.

A three-rider breakaway, which included Ryan Drummond (Competitive Edge Racing), Michael Garrison (Team Unknown), and Andrew Carr (Voler Factory Racing), built a maximum lead of 25 seconds but were reeled in inside of 5 laps to go, leading to a bunch sprint finish.

“Last year, I was second here, and Danny Summerhill just got the jump on me coming into the last three corners,” Brown said. “So I made sure that it was me getting the jump this time. I was first into the last corner and still had enough left to finish it off.”

Eric Brunner (Project Echelon Racing) took back the overall lead after nabbing time bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint. He now tops the GC with a two-second lead on Eder Frayre (L39ION of Los Angeles) and three seconds on Owen Cole (Team Winston Salem).

Ethan Dunham (APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery) leads the KOM classification, and Andrew Carr (Voler Factory Racing x Performancebike.com) tops the sprint standings.

The tight GC battle will heat up on Sunday's final stage where the men will race the Sunset loop 12 times for a total of 91.1 miles to conclude the event.

“The main job was to protect our leader,” Brown said of his teammate Frayre who is the top GC contender for L39ION of Los Angeles. “If it got messy, I was going to start riding as well. The secondary aim was to go for the stage, and that worked out. He came through safe, but I think we may have lost the jersey on time bonuses. We’ll try to get it back tomorrow."

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