Sofia Gomez Villafane and Christopher Blevins both won Stage 3 of the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder on Friday to extend their lead in the tour’s general classification.
Blevins of Specialized Racing had the fastest overall time on the third stage, which was the shortest in the gravel grinder at 47.3 miles. Blevins, however, still crossed first in 55 minutes and 7 seconds, crossing 27 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Howard Grotts of Specialized. Peter Stetina of SummerCamp finished fifth on the stage in 56:58, but held to second place in the GC.
Blevins leads Stetina by 2:07 and Grotts, who’s in third of the GC, by 5:38.
Villafane, meanwhile, won her third straight stage in the women’s field. Villafane, who rides for Specialized Off-Road, won the Stage 3 in 1:06:14, finishing over 2 minutes of the second place rider on the stage, Sarah Sturm of Specialized Rapha Sram Wahoo. Sturm crossed second in 1:08:26 and is third in the GC, trailing Villafane by 16:48.
Sarah Max of Argonaut Cycles finished seventh on the stage in 1:09:29, but is still second in the GC, 11:53 behind Villafane.
The cyclists have two more stages remaining in the gravel grinder, but they’re the longest two.
Saturday’s stage will be 88.8 miles long with 6,679 feet of climbing. The race will then conclude Sunday with an 80-mile stage that will decide its overall winners.
