In a great performance, Tyler Stites (Project Echelon Racing) won the third stage of the Tour of Gila, a 26-kilometer individual time trial held around the city of Tyrone.
The American runner used a time of 33:08″ at an average speed of 47.08 km/h. The second place in the time trial was taken by the Colombian Walter Vargas (Team Medellín-EPM) at 10 seconds difference and the third position went to the Canadian Jonas Walton (Team Ecoflo Chronos) at 37″.
Stites’ victory marks the team’s second stage win at the 2024 Tour de Gila, after winning four of five stages at Redlands earlier this month. Stites takes the overall with his victory with two stages remaining. Wilmar Paredes of team Medellín had a very difficult day, finishing in 36:33 and sliding to fourth place overall.
“It’s a difficult course, the main goal was to win the stage and get the red, which I achieved,” Stites said. “I’m very happy about that. I definitely had my eye on the course history, but I came up short; It was a hard day. I was chasing Walter, who was my minute man, so he was a good carrot to chase. I had it in sight, so I had a good day.”
For his part, Vargas expressed: “This was a quite demanding time trial and the wind here is strong. I felt good and had good legs, but Tyler is also in great shape. He knew that he had won another race before Gila here in the United States, so he is going very strong.”
Despite his defeat on Friday, Vargas and the Medellín team look towards the last two stages, ready to fight for the general classification. “I am second overall with two demanding stages remaining, including the final, which is a very, very tough stage,” Vargas said. “We hope to give it our all and have a good race on Sunday. Tomorrow we have the critical, which is fast and explosive, so we will give it our all in these last two days.”
This Saturday, the American round will continue with the fourth stage, a 69.5 kilometer day starting and ending in Silver City, criterium style. The successor of the American Alex Hoehn, champion last year, will be known on Sunday in Piños Altos (State of New Mexico).
Tour de Gila 2022 (UCI 2.2)
Results Stage 3 | CRI – Tyrone (26 km)
| 1 | Tyler Stites | Project Echelon Racing | 33:08 |
| 2 | Walter Vargas *Colombia | Team Medellín-EPM | 0:10 |
| 3 | Jonas Walton | Team Ecoflo Chronos | 0:37 |
| 4 | Joshua Lebo | CS Velo Racing | 0:52 |
| 5 | Owen Wright | CS Velo Racing | 0:55 |
| 6 | Samuel Gilletly | Landis Cyclery/Trek | 1:11 |
| 7 | Conn McDunphy | Team Skyline | 1:33 |
| 8 | Garin Kelley | Team California | 1:41 |
| 9 | Patrick Welch | Above & Beyond Cancer Cycling p/b Bike World | 1:54 |
| 10 | Cade Bickmore | Project Echelon Racing | 2:00 |