Lindine and Haywood win stage 3 at Trans-Sylvania

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Justin Lindine (Redline/NBX) continued his winning ways while Sue Haywood (Stan's NoTubes) enjoyed a stage victory in stage 3 of the Trans-Sylvania Epic on Tuesday. Lindine and Amanda Carey (Stan's NoTubes) retained their yellow leader's jerseys in the predominantly road stage over 42 miles and with nearly 5,000 feet of climbing.

"I couldn't be more psyched," said Lindine to Cyclingnews. "It's nice when it all comes together and you have good legs and good luck. The whole puzzle is being put together."

Haywood was happy to win the stage and continue her battle to get back into the top 3 of the women's GC. "I made up some time today. It was small, but it helps," Haywood said to Cyclingnews.

Racers awoke to pouring rain and cool temperatures and spirits were lower than usual in the lead-up to the start. It would be a muddy stage; however, the rain stopped just after the start, which meant that while the singletrack was muddy, the roads were in good condition.

Men

The stage began with some fireroad climbing, which at least helped riders stay warm in the wet conditions. Drew Edsall (Kenda/Felt) was the first to push the pace and get things going.

His efforts produced a lead group of about eight men, including also Lindine, Brian Matter (RACC / Trek / ProGold), Sam Koerber (ProGold), Phil Grove (Hammer Nutrition), Aaron Snyder (TSEpic.com/NoTubes), Mike Wissell (B2C2/Boloco), and Wes Richards (Clemmons Bicycle).

The aggressive Edsall would lose contact with the lead group after a crash.

Race leader Lindine was pushing the pace on the climbs, an effort which paid off as men began to come off the back of the lead group. Koerber was conspicuously absent after dropping his chain on a fast road section after the first singletrack, leaving Lindine and Matter alone together at the front after the last man to stay with them, Wes Richards (Clemmons Bicycle), flatted.

"I got my chain stuck between the cassette and chainstay," said Koerber. "I guess my limit screw was adjusted wrong. It got stuck and wouldn't pedal out. I had to stop and lost about 30 seconds since our group was rolling at 30mph."

"I tried to chase back up, but it wasn't going to happen. I couldn't quite get to them, so it was a long day. I knew it was all mostly fast and mostly gravel." He spent much of the day with Wissell.

Lindine and Matter would ride almost the entire rest of the 42-mile stage together. For awhile, they pushed the pace, then they backed it off after establishing a clear margin with no chasers posing any close threat.

"The separation happened quicker than I thought it would compared to other years and similar stages," said Lindine. "Brian and I worked together well and we were moving. Sam would have been with us without his mechanical issue."

Matter said, "We were trying to hurt each other while being friendly. There were no vicious attacks, but there was some hard, hard tempo going on. After that happened, we realized neither one of us was going anywhere, so we'd chat for a bit. We tried to keep it steady on the pavement. We wanted to keep the speed up and get it done. It kind of felt like a 'cross race to Justin and me. We're two 'cross racers. We both felt pretty comfortable."

The stage finished with mostly climbing out of Coburn during the last 10 miles, and for much of the sustained uphill, Lindine pushed the pace, with Matter sitting on. Matter took a turn at the front once the course turned onto an old road closed to motor vehicles.

Matter said, "The long paved to dirt climb, Justin led up a lot. I think he was trying to hurt me there, but I stayed with him. Then up that last two-track climb, I was trying to hurt him, but he was right there. We continued to roll together until the last enduro section."

Lindine got a gap in the last few miles, when Matter had to stop and swipe his card for the start of the second and final enduro section of the stage. Lindine did not have to stop as he has opted out of the overall enduro competition. Although Lindine has waited for Matter to swipe in the first enduro section, he decided not to wait during the second one.

Lindine rolled in solo for the win ahead of Matter in second. Koerber finished in third with a very out of true rear wheel to finish in third on the day.

"For better or for worse, Brian is going for the enduro. I made a decision going into it that it was of less importance for me to try to win that jersey," said Lindine. "It does cost him a few seconds to swipe in and out. The first section it didn't make sense to push that to any advantage. I didn't want to ride 30 miles by myself. But a couple of miles from the finish, I wasn't going to wait. It's a cool competition within the race, but you have to pick and chose your battles."

Michael Wissell (B2C2/ Boloco) and Aaron Snyder (TSEpic Team) rounded out the top five. It was Wissell's best-ever Trans-Sylvania Epic stage finish.

In the GC, Lindine retained his lead, but Matter moved ahead of Koerber for second and third respectively. Snyder stayed in fourth while Wissell replaced Edsall for the fifth spot.

Despite his crash, Edsall did make the most of the day by winning the stage's enduro classification.
Women

Women

The top women raced together for a majority of Tuesday's stage, which was primarily on roads of all types. A lead group formed early, including race leader Amanda Carey, Sue Haywood, Vicki Barclay, Sarah Kaufmann (all Stan's NoTubes Women's Elite), Sonya Looney (Topeak Ergon) and Andrea Wilson (Brickhouse Racing).

With a comfortable 10.5-minute lead in the overall, Carey had no need to attack her rivals and gain more time. Instead, she opted for a more conservative approach and the race's favorites all stayed tightly together.

"I've never been in the position of lead management so early in the stage race before. It caught me by surprise in a way, but I've also put enough thinking into it to know when it comes to it, it comes to it," said Carey to Cyclingnews.

"I knew that on a road stage any kind of time I could make up would take more effort than it was worth. It was an interesting stage. It was a super mellow pace for awhile. It was almost too mellow to stay warm, but toward the end, we started picking it up."

Barclay said, "It was a very strange race. I couldn't work out what was going on to be honest. I felt like I was on a road ride with my best friends or maybe in a Cat. 4 road race. We were crawling along chatting and no one was making attacks. You just didn't know how anyone was feeling."

Of all the ladies, Haywood was probably feeling the worst. "I was suffering even though the pace was not hard. The flat sections and climbs were hard. Coming out fo Coburn was bad. I was dangling and feeling awful. They were all chatting and I was back there dying. At that moment I hated them all. I knew they weren't suffering as much or else they were hiding it."

"I just kept hanging on. Everyone was looking toward Amanda," said Haywood. "If she goes, maybe someone else will go, but no one felt strong enough to attack Amanda, but they should have gone because if they go, Amanda will go with them. If I'd felt good, I would have done that."

It wasn't until the final 10 miles, which was largely uphill, that definitive separations occurred.

Going toward a slightly muddy doubletrack climb, Barclay went to the front and pushed the pace. She took Carey and Haywood with her while Kaufmann, Looney and Wilson were gapped off.

Barclay said, "Amanda wasn't going to attack because she had such a big lead. We got to the big climb coming out of Coburn, and I was feeling good. I knew about a left hander with a steep section just after, and I clicked into an easier gear for it and took a dig to get to the top first."

The three would maintain a stiff pace on the final major climb.

Haywood said, "I went into strategy mode. I wanted to hang on, and I was thinking of second through fourth in GC. I'm not protecting anything, but the other girls seemed to be in protection mode. I wanted to go for the stage win, plus I had to work hard to get that. Plus I had to stop and swipe for the enduro jersey."

When she stopped, Barclay got around first, with Carey in tow.

Barclay said, "I got ahead. I was like 'oh my god, I'm in the lead, shit, I'm going to win... oh, no I'm not,' and they both came flying past me."

Haywood also went around Carey, but had to stop and swipe at the bottom of the enduro section and then had to chase back again.

Carey and Haywood then pulled away slightly from Barclay on the final enduro section, and the two rode together until near the end of the race.

Carey said, "I got into the singletrack first - I had no idea that was coming up. Sue got around me when I blew a corner just enough that Sue, who is so crafty, slid right by me. We were both running pinner little road tires and were equally sketchy. She took a super sketchy, what I call Canadian line, and blew straight through the woods. I said I was going to follow, here but I got a stick through my frame and crank arm and into my leg and that was just enough."

Haywood went for it and held off Carey for the stage win by 11 seconds. Barclay rolled in for third place at 26 seconds.

"I made up some time today. It was small, but it helps," said Haywood.

Wilson, Looney and Kaufmann were left to battle for the remaining spots and Wilson, who said she was just ready to be done with the stage, powered away from Looney and Kaufmann to ride in alone for fourth place, ahead of Looney in fifth place.

There were no changes in the order of the top five GC women, with Carey leading Kaufmann, Barclay, Haywood and Wilson.

U25 men

The U25 men's race was one of the most exciting of the day as five young men traded positions throughout the race. Leader Cory Rimmer (Piney Flats Bicycle/Dean Endurance) and Zach Adams (Toasted Head) were the first contenders to emerge from the mist at the bottom of the SRAM/Bear Creek enduro at Penns View. Adams, the first recipient of the men's enduro jersey, led Rimmer across the Poe Paddy railroad trestle with the race's first U25 leader, Gunnar Bergey (Cannondale/Champion Systems/) and Logan Taylor (Logan Taylor), who are both taking part in the race on separate Epic Teams.

Madison Matthews (The Bicycle Shop/MBR/Maxxis) suffered a flat on the first descent just a few miles into the race and was slowly reeling in the U25 leaders.

Across the challenging Krumrine Trail, Fisherman's Path, and the ensuing flat pavement through Penn's Valley Rimmer, Adams, Taylor, and Bergey rode together with Matthews to close the gap. As the group ascended the three-mile climb of Sieglerville-Millheim Pike, Taylor found his favored terrain and attacked the lead group. Bergey and Rimmer responded, and though they could not follow the Colorado based rider, the acceleration did leave Adams struggling to hold on. Just moments later, Matthews arrived from behind, resulting in another surge that dislodged Adams for good.

Though Rimmer, Bergey, and Matthews had numerical superiority, it was Logan whose speed increased to open a two-minute gap over the chase group in the final ten miles. Bergey was distanced by an acceleration from Matthews and Rimmer in the final enduro segment of the day, which allowed Rimmer to pad his GC lead slightly over the Cannondale/Champions Systems racer.

Tomorrow's enduro stage could shake up the race more as Adams has proven a threat in the enduro segments all week and Matthews, a State College native, rides these trails almost weekly from home. The expectation is that the BMC U25 race is far from over.

Singlespeed men

Following a strong stage victory on day 2, Matt Ferrari (Freeze Thaw Cycles/Hubcap Cycles) started stage 3 looking to grow his lead over the competition. Early in the race, Ferrari separated from the group but found himself in the company of David Yacobelli (Corning/NoTubes Racing Team), who sought to make up time from a rough start to the week. Yacobelli and Ferrari decided early on to work together and use each other for motivation throughout the stage.

Trading off leads through various sections, the duo stuck together until the end of the second enduro segment when Yacobelli attacked and developed a small lead. The lead would stick to the finish line, with Ferrari finishing a few seconds behind day’s winner.

Dejay Birtch (Riding for Reading/Stan's/Maxxis/Pivot) displayed much improved form in comparison to the first two days as he rode in for a third place finish, just minutes behind the race leaders. Dax Massey (Breck Epic/Honey Stinger/Light and Motion), repeating his misfortune from yesterday, went slightly off course following a group of 10 riders. Though able to correct the mistake quickly, the detour enabled Rich Dillen (Faster Mustache) to get ahead, continuing the battle the two fought in stage 2.

Climbing out of Coburn, Dillen fought hard to maintain his lead through the long, gravel climb. Massey, however, was committed to regaining his time, as well as his position, and put in a strong attack to catch Dillen in the last quarter of the race. Massey held on to his lead over Dillen by seconds to finish fourth in the stage.

Today's results leaves the leader's jersey with Matt Ferrari, but the day's race created shake-ups in the rest of the GC that is sure to lead to more great racing in the days to come.

Masters 40+

Matching their finish from yesterday, Masters 40+ riders Alex Hawkins and Nathan Ruch (Evolution) crossed the finish line within half a wheel of each other. After yesterday's sprint finish, Hawkins and Ruch decided not to sprint for today’s stage, and instead reversed their finish order from the previous day to allow Hawkins to place first in stage 3. Bob Radzwich (The Bicycle Shop/Vassago) crossed the finish line a few minutes later to secure third place. The two days of close racing have made the Masters 40+ race the closest in the Trans-Sylvania Epic for the overall GC competition with only 18 seconds separating the two lead riders.

Masters 50+

The Masters 50+ competition remains in the hands of Jim Matthews, whose first place finish in stage 3 added an additional 34 minutes to his already dominating lead in GC. At the end of day three, Matthews has already gained over an hour on his closest competitor, John Williams. However, Williams’ position is not guaranteed, as third place finisher Joe McCarthy crossed the line only 30 seconds behind. Should Williams’ suffer and misfortune in the coming week, the seemingly unchanging GC could be disrupted.

Duo men

Jon Firth and Drew Simson (TransRockies/Honey Stinger/Planet Foods) expanded their lead in the duo men category by over 10 minutes today. The duo broke away early from the competition and continuously built their lead as the 42-mile stage progressed. Mike Festa and Craig Lebair (Philadelphia Ciclismo) worked hard to chase down their competitors, but were once again unable to reduce the gap and finished second in the stage. Matt Salter and Don Harmeyer (Catamount/1K2GO) finished third in today's stage, but were unable to make up enough time to move up from their fourth place standing in the GC.

Duo coed

Kaarin Tae and Lawrence Plug (Java Blend) continued to control the Duo Coed with another first place finish in stage 3 of the Trans-Sylvania Epic. However, team Crosshairs Cycling, consisting of Libbey Sheldon and Chris Merriam, finished only three minutes behind the Java Blend duo. Regardless, the Crosshairs Cycling team stands almost half an hour behind in the GC. Sean Riley and Elizabeth Shaner (Griggs Orthopedics) retain their third place standing in the GC after finishing third in the stage today.

Stage 4

Stage 4 is enduro day at the Trans-Sylvania Epic on Wednesday. Racers will compete over five timed enduro sections and results from each will be combined for stage results and added to the GC. The climbs in between each enduro section will not be clocked.

Koerber, in particular, is looking forward to tomorrow's stage as he continues to battle in the GC.

"I'd like to stay in the hunt for second in the GC. That's going to be a little tough, I'm five minutes down on second. I might get a little time back tomorrow," he said. "It depends who wants to take the most risks. I always get pretty fired up when it comes time to race. I'm going to fight it out until the end."

Haywood, who is currently wearing the women's enduro leader's jersey, said, "I want the enduro jersey, but it's still time toward the GC tomorrow, and if you get a flat tire, it costs you time overall. I think I'll ride fast/smart tomorrow, but I think I'll just go for it. I don't want to be too conservative."

Non-elite reports written by Tim Darwick.

Full stage results