Stephens wins Redlands Highland circuit race

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Lauren Stephens (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) won stage 3 at the Redlands Bicycle Classic in Friday, out-kicking Sho-Air Twenty20's Leah Thomas and and UnitedHealthcare's Rushlee Buchanan in the uphill finish at the end of the Highland circuit race.

The roughly 4.5km suburban circuit in Highland featured a fast descent and a short, steep climb to the finish on a wide boulevard. The women tackled 14 laps for 66km, and the attacks started early. Rise Racing's Jamie Gilgen was active on the front, throwing out several moves that brought a quick response from the field.

"After my disappointment of the time trial I changed my focus to this stage and felt confident with the finish. You take opportunities a race gives you and today I made the right choice and got in the counter attack," Stephens said of the win.

Stage 2 winner Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare) took off with overall leader Amber Neben (Dare to be Project), winner of the opening time trial, but the peloton reacted to the dangerous move and brought the duo back into the fold.

A seven-rider group countered another attack from Gilgen and set off up the road, eventually building a gap of 1:20 with six laps to go, but Neben's team with help from UnitedHealthcare kept the move in check. Tibco started contributing to the pace-setting in the peloton, and the gap quickly slipped to just 25 seconds two laps later.

The escapees weren't finished fighting, however, and with impetus from Buchanan the advantage went back out to 1:25 with three to go.

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