Miguel Ángel López (Team Medellín-EPM) won the stage 3 uphill time trial at Joe Martin Stage Race on Saturday, and took over the general classification with a slim lead.
López covered the 4.8km route located at Devil's Den State Park in a winning time of 8:48 minutes, beating runner-up Riley Sheehan (Denver Disruptors) by 10 seconds and third-placed Kyle Murphy (L39ION of Los Angeles) by 25 seconds.
"I knew that today had to be one of my hardest efforts ever and I feel like I did that. I was one hundred per cent for this, coming into the weeks before, eyes focused on this time trial. I’m glad because It paid off, I would have loved to win or take the GC lead but Lopez has it. Hats off to him for an incredible ride," Sheehan said.
López’ stage victory bumped him up two spots and into the overall race lead ahead of Sheehan by six seconds. Leader into the stage, Tyler Stites (Project Echelon Racing) dropped to third overall, at 29 seconds back.
The twisty 4.8-kilometre uphill course with an average grade of 5 per cent was challenging for many in the 113-rider field. “It’s really tough. It’s always changing gradients and switchbacks, hard to pace,” said Stites.
“My only goal was to give it my all and finish completely done. Happy with my ride, those guys went really fast so kudos to them,” added Stites who finished in fourth place on the stage, 34 seconds from the pace of the winner.
The Joe Martin Stage Race concludes on Sunday with a criterium in Fayetteville, taking place on a technical 1.2-mile course with an uphill section leading to the start/finish line.
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