Joe Martin Stage Race: Miguel Ángel López wins stage 3 time trial

(Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)

Sam Boardman (L39ION of Los Angeles) finished just 2 seconds slower than his winning time from last year, but finished 7th overall highlighting strength of the field at this year's race. (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)

Tyler Stites (Project Echelon Racing) finished 4th in the TT and sits 3rd overall in GC, 29 seconds behind Lopez and 23 seconds behind Sheehan. (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)

Just one second separated Tyler Stites (Project Echelon) in the yellow from Riley Sheehan (Denver Disruptors) in second place GC before the start of the TT. (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)

Walter Vargas (Team Medellin - EPM), the Pan American Champion and winner of the TT at Gila finished 6th on the stage. (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)

Kyle Murphy (L39ion of LA), the current US National Road Racing champion, finished 3rd in the TT and moved into 4th overall GC. (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)

Serghei Tvetcov (Denver Disruptors) finished 5th in the TT and moved up 9 spots to tenth overall in GC. (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)

Caleb Classen (Kelly Benefits Strategies Cycling) extended his lead in the best young rider's competition to 1'13" over Gavin Hlady (Space City Development Team) (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)

Miguel Ángel López (Team Medellín-EPM) won the stage 3 uphill time trial at Joe Martin Stage Race on Saturday, and took over the general classification with a slim lead.

López covered the 4.8km route located at Devil's Den State Park in a winning time of 8:48 minutes, beating runner-up Riley Sheehan (Denver Disruptors) by 10 seconds and third-placed Kyle Murphy (L39ION of Los Angeles) by 25 seconds.

"I knew that today had to be one of my hardest efforts ever and I feel like I did that. I was one hundred per cent for this, coming into the weeks before, eyes focused on this time trial. I’m glad because It paid off, I would have loved to win or take the GC lead but Lopez has it. Hats off to him for an incredible ride,"  sheehan said.

López’ stage victory bumped him up two spots and into the overall race lead ahead of Sheehan by six seconds. Leader into the stage, Tyler Stites (Project Echelon Racing) dropped to third overall, at 29 seconds back.

The twisty 4.8-kilometre uphill course with an average grade of 5 per cent was challenging for many in the 113-rider field. “It’s really tough. It’s always changing gradients and switchbacks, hard to pace,” said Stites.

“My only goal was to give it my all and finish completely done. Happy with my ride, those guys went really fast so kudos to them,” added Stites who finished in fourth place on the stage, 34 seconds from the pace of the winner.

The Joe Martin Stage Race concludes on Sunday with a criterium in Fayetteville, taking place on a technical 1.2-mile course with an uphill section leading to the start/finish line.

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