Hughes wages impressive comeback

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Dale Parker (Trek-Livestrong) blasted to the Tyrone Time Trial victory in the stage three of the SRAM Tour of the Gila. The 18-year-old Australian rode the 25km course in a time of 34:39, besting Jeremy Vennell (Bissell) by six seconds and overall race leader Francisco Mancebo (RealCyclist.com) by an additional one second.

"It was a tough day and went into it sitting further back in the GC," Parker said. "I'm only 18 so I come in here with not too much pressure on me and I expected these guys to smash my time. Congratulations to these guys, but today was my day, and it is an honour be next to these damn good riders."

Mancebo furthered his lead in the overall classification heading into the stage four criterium held in downtown Silver City on Saturday. He is also leading the King of the Mountains (KOM) competition. Parker moved into the lead of the event's best young rider competition and Frank Pipp (Bissell) is leading the best sprinter's competition.

"I'm happy with my race today and I felt good today," Mancebo said. "The wind was a little bit dangerous during some points today and I used a 50 mm front wheel and a disc wheel on the back. I wasn't able to catch Dombrowski by the end but I was able to catch Tyler Wren so I know that I gained a bit more time in the overall and the overall is important."

The 25km Tyrone Time Trial parcours offered the riders a challenging course that featured nearly 1,200 ft. of climbing and potentially hazardous cross winds. "It's always windy here and you just have to hope that you don't end up at the side of the road," Vennell said. "I rode in my aerobars the whole race but I'd see some guys chicken out and hold onto the handlebars. I had a shallow front wheel, which made a huge difference."

Some 140 riders rolled individually to the starting ramp including time trial specialists Ben Day (Kenda/5-hour Energy), Chris Baldwin, Jeremy Vennell and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Tom Zirbel (Hotel San Jose-ACME), Luis Amaran (Jamis-Sutter Home), Darren Rolfe (V Australia), among others.

Michael Vink (Trek-Livestrong) rode in with one of the fastest times of the day, early in the race, with a time of 35:41. His pace was quickly defeated by Zirbel who crossed the finish line with a time of 35:27.

Zirbel held the hot seat for roughly half the time trial until Vennell completed the course with a new best time of 34:45. His time was quickly broken by Parker, however, who rode in with a time of 34:39.

"I know that if anyone did 34 minutes that would be a good time but I didn't know what I could do," Vennell said. "Even if I ended up top 20, that would have been fine, I just wanted to see what I could do. I don't normally do that well at altitude."

Race leader, Mancebo, passed his one-minute man Tyler Wren (Jamis-Sutter Home) and caught his two-minute man Joseph Dombrowski (Trek-Livestrong) on the finish line.

Hughes impressive against the clock

Clara Hughes (Pactimo Cycling) dominated the SRAM Tour of the Gila stage three Tyrone Time Trial course in a time of 39:33 and moved up into the overall race lead with two stages to go. The Canadian Olympian bested her nearest competitors by nearly two minutes, Rhae Shaw (CycleU) in second and Janel Holcomb (Colavita Forno D’Asolo) in third.

"It was kind of a weird time trial because on the parts that I wanted to go hard, I spun out, so that was a little frustrating because I wanted to go faster on the downhills," Hughes said. "It was the longest that I have ridden in my time trial position and in the last 10 minutes I was cramping a little.

"It was a good first time trial and it was fun. It was the first time that I raced with this time trial bike and I dialed down my position so I’m really happy with that too. It felt comfortable, it’s a sweet bike, so I feel like my legs are slowly getting to the place of earning the bike. I’m not quite worthy of it but I’m getting there."

Hughes started the stage in third place overall, 44 seconds behind Mara Abbott (Diadora-Pasta Zara). However, her strong performance in the time trial bumped her into the race lead just under two minutes to ahead of Abbott.

The diminutive Abbott maintained her lead in the event’s Queen of the Mountain (QOM) competition while Heather Logan-Sprenger (Colavita Forno D’Asolo) leads the event’s best sprinter competition.

"I have no idea if I can hold the lead and honestly, I’m not too concerned about it, it would be fantastic," Hughes said. "To be honest, a big motivation to keep it is that I’m staying at the lady’s house who makes the trophy pottery, and I would love one of those. But, it’s not so good to focus on something that’s material. I gotta take it day-by-day.

"Tomorrow is my first criterium and I have to play it safe. I love doing crits, I always did. Sunday will be hard and I expect a huge battle out there. It is going to be fun and I will give it everything that I have. We are a little composite team out here and we will do the best we can. I just want to feel good about every day."

The Pro-Cat 1,2 women’s field bore the brunt of the day’s strong winds, which increased into 40 mph gusts as the day progressed into the afternoon. The course also included 1,200 ft of climbing, to add the thousands of feet of climbing during the course of the five-stage race that concludes on the famed Gila Monster Road Race on Sunday.

"The forecast called for stronger winds, so even though it was windy, I feel luckier that it wasn’t windier," Abbott said. "But, goal is to bring that time back and you don’t stop until the race is over. Clara is having an awesome race and I am really impressed by her and glad that I got to meet her this week. But, you don’t know until it’s over. I really like this race and I’m excited for tomorrow and for Sunday’s race. I’m going to just keep on going."

Abbott placed fourth with a time of 42:00 ahead of Alison Starnes (Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12) who placed fifth with a time of 42:05 and Meredith Miller (Tibco-To the Top) took one of the earlier fastest times but was slide into sixth place.

"I’m really happy because this is my first NRC time trial podium and I am really very happy," Holcomb said. "I felt good today and when I was out there, I kept thinking that it is amazing to have a staff that supports you, that makes you love the team, makes you feel good about being on the team, gives you great equipment and it makes it possible for the riders to go out and do their job.

"To be in a time trial on day three of a really hard stage race, and to be able to go out there and work hard, it’s because on day one Kristin [Sanders] was off the front all day, and day two Heather [Logan-Sprenger] was off the front and we got to rest. It’s all about working together and working as a team."

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