Suarez solos to stage victory

The Colombian team EPM – UNE has dominated the 120 kilometre third stage of the Tour do Rio, with Juan Suarez escaping for a 22 second gap from a group of eight riders to be first over the line in the picturesque mountain resort town of Teresopolis.

Claiming the remaining podium spots were teammates Jaime Castenada and Edward Beltran who extends his lead in the youth classification with his third placing. Also in the lead bunch were American pair Tyler Wren and James Driscoll (Jamis-Sutter Home), Javier Gomez (EPM – UNE), Rafael Andriato (Petroli Firenze) and Rafael Abreu (EPM – UNE).

The win earned Suarez the yellow jersey from Edgardo Simon, the Colombian holding a 16-second lead on Brazilian hope Andriato, with Castenada next best at 26 seconds.

Suarez was pleased that his team had managed to live up to the expectations placed on them before the start of Friday's stage, with the Colombians expected to feel right at home with a category 1 climb, 29 kilometres from the finish.

"Everybody was saying that we were going to win," he told reporters. "The mountains battle with football as a tradition in our country. I didn't have time to notice the view because the climb was very hard."

The day began just the way it ended with a category 3 climb just 34.4 kilometres into the stage. With that in mind the pack was aggressive heading out of Tres Rios with numerous failed breakaways en route to the KOM, where no escape group managed more than a gap of 40 seconds before being reeled back in.

EPM – UNE were very busy in the opening skirmishes and it was no surprise that Castenada took honours for the first KOM.

Jamis-Sutter Home's Driscoll explained the tactics to Cyclingnews: "It was just a battle between EPM, and Caloi and I guess that was mainly because EPM never let anything go without one of their guys and then they would bridge up and Caloi would just drive the field back to it time after time after time," he said. The US team had tried on several occasions to get in a successful break with Eric Schilidge leading the way.

Gruppo compatto was very much the order of the day until the final climb loomed on the horizon. The steep winding turns of the road were littered with construction work, although a representative from the Brazilian Federation described it as the Tour do Rio's own strada bianche. There were punctures aplenty, but its main consequence was to finally split the peloton.

EPM - UNE led the charge with Suarez and Castaneda yo-yoing off the front of the group all the way to the top of the climb and then on the descent the group of 11 riders tried their luck with everyone still together at the base of the climb before Suarez made his break for the line with 300 metres to go.

Noteably, Team Rwanda fared well as the Tour do Rio hit the tough climbs. Nicodem Habiyambere finished in the fourth group across the line 3:40, with Emmanuel Rudahunga and Gasore Hategeka not far behind. Team manager Jock Boyer was satisfied with their efforts.

"They did great," he told Cyclingnews. "Nicodem was just missing a tiny bit at the top of the hill and the descent alone is hard for him because he doesn't have anybody to follow because he's not as good as all the experienced riders. He got caught right at two kilometres to the finish but that's fine. And the other riders they were all compact except for one so it was good."

Saturday, the race heads east to the coast with a 197.6 kilometre stage which includes another challenging two climbs to Rio Das Ostras or River of the Oysters. Boyer admitted it was already causing some anxiety among his team

"They're scared of tomorrow because it's 200 kilometres. They think it's going to be harder but you know, really, it isn't. They've just got to stay with the pack, stay with the front and go with any breakaways – it's great experience for them. Because once they do a couple of races at 200k it will seem like, oh, okay no problem."

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