Tvetcov powers to Tour of the Gila time trial stage win

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Serghei Tvetcov (UnitedHealthcare) won the day at the Tour of Gila time trial on Friday, but Rally Cycling’s Rob Britton came away with the red leader’s jersey after finishing fourth on the stage.

Heavy winds buffeted the 26km out-and-back course, slowing the times from previous years and providing plenty of challenge for the riders. Tvetcov, who won this stage in 2014, crossed the line on Friday in 33:30, while teammate Gavin Mannion was second at 33:55. Last year’s stage winner Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) was third at 34:01, with Britton slotting in just behind at 34:08.

For Tevtcov, who struggled on the Mogollon climb on the opening day, the stage win provided a bit of redemption.

“I lost a lot of time on the first day, because that climb doesn’t really suit me,” he said. Tvetcov revealed his true form in the difficult conditions of the time trial, however.

“It was much slower because it was super hard in the crosswinds, because if it was a headwind then somewhere it should be a tailwind, but today it was all day crosswinds and cross-headwinds. A couple times I almost crashed,” Tvetcov said.

“I tried to think about this stage before when I came here because I knew I could be top three for sure,” Tvetcov said. “Definitely I looked on the wind website, and I knew it was going to be the same for everybody.”

For Britton and Rally Cycling, the stage win would have been nice, but the main goal was taking the red leader’s jersey, and that was mission accomplished. Britton now leads the general classification by 57 seconds over Mannion and 1:07 over teammate Kyle Murphy. Overnight leader Oscar Sanchez (Canel’s Specialized) finished 19th at 2:37 off the leader and dropped to fourth overall. Tvetcov is fifth, 1:48 back.

“It was either headwind or crosswind, and some raging tailwind on parts of the downhill,” Britton said. “I don’t think I went under 70km an hour the whole time, so I kind of regret not putting on a bigger chain ring, but c’est la vie.

“I think we both had good rides, and the goal was to take the jersey,” Britton said of himself and Huffman. “It would have been nice to put more time into Gavin. For sure he’s my biggest concern now, and with his team, the way their riding, they’ll be our biggest challenge on Sunday.”

But before Sunday’s Gila Monster test, Britton and Rally have to hold off any challengers during the Saturday criterium, which includes a nice little uphill on the backside.

Rally director Jonas Carney told Cyclingnews his team is up to the challenge.

“We came here to ride for the GC, so having Rob in [the red leader’s jersey] was the goal, and now we just have to do our best to defend for two days,” Carney said.

“The criterium is not as easy as you think," Carney said. "Part of the problem is you really don’t want to blow yourselves out the day before the Gila Monster. But the way the first stage went down and with the wind today, that gaps are really large, so the criterium shouldn’t be too bad, but Gila Monster is always a beast. You have to be 100 per cent to defend on that stage.”

Britton showed no hesitation when asked about defending over the final two days.

“We’ve got guys for both, so I think we’re sitting pretty,” he said. “After the European smashing [earlier this season], I really put a lot of work in the last six weeks. It’s the most I’ve focused on training this time of year ever, so it’s paying off now.”

How it unfolded

The traditional Tyrone time trial just outside of Silver City took place on a 26km our-and-back course that featured 362 metres of climbing. The route started immediately uphill and summited Little Burro Pass about 7.5km into the stage. A fast descent led to a flat run to the turnaround, where riders started it all over in reverse. The riders summited Little Burro Pass once more with about 7.5km of fast descent to the finish remaining.

As is often the case at the Tour of the Gila time trial, strong winds blew across the course for most of the day with riders fighting crosswinds on the way out and then again on the way back.

Starting second on the day, Mexican time trial champion Ignacio Prado (Canel’s Specialized) set the best early time with a mark of 37:20, more than four minutes off Huffman’s winning mark in 2017. Prado’s time lasted only 15 minutes, however, as George Simpson (Elevate-KHS), who was 10th last year with a time of 34:26, crossed the line at 35:37 to set the new best time on the stage.

Aevolo’s Travis Samuel came close to Simpson’s mark at 36:03, but it was only good enough to slot into second at the time. Simpson’s time in the hotseat lasted only 15 minutes as Adam Roberge (Silber Pro Cycling) crossed the line in 35:03. His Silber teammate Alex Cowan came in sin after with the second best time at 35:19.

Fifteen minutes later Huffman crossed the line with the new best time at 34:01, but his time in the lead was short-lived as Tvetcov came in at 33:30. Rally’s Murphy stopped the clock at 34:26 for third at the time behind Tvetcov and Hufman.

The podium spots started falling quickly from there, with Mannion setting a mark of 33:55. Alexander Evans started the day fourth overall and came in at 37:06, slipping to 13th overall. Britton came in seven seconds slower than teammate Huffman. Overnight race leader Sanchez suffered on the windy course, crossing the line in 36:07.

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