Joe Martin Stage Race: Sheehan climbs to Mount Sequoyah win on stage 2

Riley Sheehan (Denver Disruptors) climbed to victory on stage 2 at the Walmart Joe Martin Stage Race across a long, rainy day on the Mount Sequoyah Road Race for pro men. Bryan Gómez (Miami Nights) won the duel with Miguel Ángel López (Team Medellín-EPM) two seconds later for second place. 

Tyler Stites (Project Echelon Racing) finished fifth among the lead group, just behind Sheehan, and retained the yellow leader's jersey with a one-second lead on Sheehan, who moved to second on GC with the victory. López is now five seconds down on GC in third. Eder Frayer (L39ION of Los Angeles) dropped from second to seventh on GC, now 31 seconds back, while Oscar Sevilla (Team Medellín-EPM) also dropped five spots to eighth.

It was the first UCI stage win of the year for the 22-year-old Sheehan, who finished fourth overall at Redlands Bicycle Classic.

A heavy rain created havoc for the peloton all day, with the top climbers surviving a crash and flat tyres to mark each other for the final climb. Sergio Henao and Serghei Tvetcov did the bulk of work on the final 2.5-mile climb to launch Sheehan to the win.

"The whole team was there helping. You know, I had Noah [Granigan], I had Juan [Arango], Sergio, Sergei, like everyone was there. We had everyone lined up helping, you know surfing the wheels and just right before we came in at the right time," Sheehan said at the finish. 

"And then on the climb, I felt really good. I just punched it at that 450-metre wall. At the final bit just kind of surfed the wheels and 200 to go, didn't look back."

How it unfolded

Across the opening miles of the 92.2-mile (148.4km) stage 2 from downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas, Jaco Cronje (Team Elevate) attempted an early attack. All moves were shut down eight miles later when the race was neutralised by officials as multiple riders suffered flats. It was all together again for a do-over under cloudy skies and imposing weather, as well as imposing terrain that brought 5,834 feet of climbing (1,778 metres).

Headed to the sprint line near Brentwood after 15km of racing, five riders moved away from the field - Clever Martinez (Miami Nights), Tyler Williams (L39ION of Los Angeles), John Borstelmann (CS Velo Racing), Ian Williams (Expeditors Elite), Thomas Schellenberg (TaG Cycling) - and Ulises Castillo (Denver Disruptors) gave a solo chase behind.  

Soon the rain started to fall, and the field was all together again, as the early break never gained much more than 30 seconds.

On the first categorised climb, Sergio Henao (Denver Disruptors) took top points ahead of López and Stites. 

On the rolling and wet roads toward the first feed zone on the route with less than 55 miles to go, Alan Schroeder (CS Velo) attacked for a solo breakaway and gained a 50-second advantage quickly. 

As Schroeder opened a gap of a full minute with 53 miles to go, a crash in the heavy rain took down riders with the Miami Nights and Team Medellín-EPM. Reports from the race caravan noted that the riders were able to continue. The heavy rain continued to fall, and Schroeder continued to push, gaining another 25 seconds.

The CS Velo rider’s gap began to fade after more than 20 miles of solo riding, his day over with 21 miles to go. With 15 miles remaining, López suffered a flat as he was part of the Medellín contingency leading the chase. Three miles later, Alec Cowan (L39ION of Los Angeles) attacked to try to catch the lone leader.

It was all back together with six miles of racing, and less than four miles to the final climb to the finish, with a maximum gradient of 15.5%. Once on Spring Street in Fayetteville, headed to the familiar climb of Mount Sequoyah, Team Medellín-EPM and Denver Disruptors took control at the front of the peloton for their climbers, L39ION and Project Echelon following closely. It wasn't until the end that Sheehan played his hand and won.

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