Tyler Stites (Project Echelon) won the Redlands Classic individual time trial along Route 66, beating Xander White (CS Velo) by 18 seconds, with White moving into the race lead. Tim McBirney, third at 22 seconds, took over as the best amateur rider.
"I've been looking forward to this TT for a while," Stites said. "It's a really cool course with good pavement, so I just wanted to go fast. I'm kind of a TT dork so I just love going fast. You never know how your legs are going to feel in the middle of a stage race, but I just felt really good. I took it easy on the way out on the downhill and on the way back just gave it everything. It was a lot of fun and I think I moved up a bit on GC, but we're still on the hunt for yellow, so it will be a fun final two stages."
White, in the lead with just 10 seconds over Stites, faces two challenging stages with Saturday's evening criterium preceding a demanding Sunset circuit on Sunday.
"I had a really good day today," Kiwi Xander White said. "We came here to win the yellow jersey and took it in a race that I really like. I really enjoy time trials. Tyler (Stites) pulled a ripper out of the bag on what turned out to be a really fast course. We have our work cut out for us over the next two days. Honestly, we haven't thought too much about how we're going to play it, but I think we've got the strength to hold on to it."
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