By Rebecca Reza, RadioTour

At Tour of the Gila on Friday, Project Echelon’s Tyler Stites blasted through the finish, seizing the win with a time of 33:07 at the Tyrone Individual Time Trial presented by Freeport McMoran. He came close to the course record of 32:59 that was set by Levi Leipheimer in 2009. The current Pan Am Time Trial Champion, Walter Vargas, was second for Team Medellín, clocking a time of 33:18. Jonas Walton rounded the podium in third, finishing in 33:45 and moving into the lead of the Best Young Rider Classification.

Stites’s win marks the second stage win for the team at Tour of the Gila 2024, after winning four out of five stages at Redlands earlier this month. Stites takes over the GC with his victory with two stages remaining. Team Medellín’s Wilmar Paredes had a tough day, finishing in 36:33 and sliding down to fourth on GC.

“It’s a tough course, the main goal was to win the stage and take the red which I accomplished,” Stites said. “I’m really happy about that. I definitely had my eye on the course record but came up short; it was a tough day out there. I was chasing Walter, which was my minute-man, so that was a good carrot to be chasing. I had him in sight so I had a good day.”

The 16.15-mile Individual Time Trial out-and-back course in Tyrone featured 1,188 feet (362 meters) of climbing. Straight out of the start house, the road pitches up for a Category 4 Little Burro climb, rapidly shifts into a fast descent passing the Freeport-McMoran Tyrone mine, the end of which signals the turn around to head back to the finish. Five miles before the finish, the Little Burro greets the riders again, this time descending at a gradient of 6-7% before streaming down into the finishing shoot.

Owen Wright of CS Velo Racing sat in the hot seat for most of the day, starting within the first 20 riders out of the start house. Wright clocked in at 34:02, enough to finish fifth. His teammate, Joshua Lebo, crossed the finish with his CS Velo team cheering him on, becoming the first rider to clock in under 34 minutes with 33:59 and ending up fourth on the stage.

The hot seat began to change rapidly once the final ten riders were coming in to the finish. Disappointment showed through the smile Vargas displayed as he talked about his performance. He had won the stage last year, and was hoping to defend his win, but still gave respect to Stites as he outshone him in Tyrone.

“This was a pretty demanding time trial, and the wind here is strong,” Vargas said. “I felt good and had good legs but Tyler [Stites] is also in very good form. I knew that he had won another race before Gila here in the United States, so he’s going very strong.”

Despite his loss on Friday, Vargas and Team Medellín look ahead to the final two stages, ready to battle for the GC.

“I’m sitting second on GC with two demanding stages to go, including the final that is a very, very hard stage,” Vargas said. “We hope to give everything and make it a good race on Sunday. Tomorrow, we have the crit, which is a fast and explosive one, so we will give it our all in these last two days.”

Stites won the Downtown Silver City Criterium in 2022, and expects the team to contest the sprint on Saturday before the final showdown Sunday. Important time bonuses will be available at the finish Saturday for the top three finishers, earning ten, six and four seconds respectively.

The pro men take the stage at 3:10 p.m. after a full day of amateur racing and following the pro women.