American riders continue their winning streak in Belize: both young and old...

Stage 3 TTT: Hattieville – Northern Highway Junction – Hattieville, 40km

Well, they’ve done it again. The USA Development Team bagged a second consecutive victory with an impressive showing in the long TTT. Demonstrating great teamwork, the nine-man team (the biggest here) beat the likes of Tecos and compatriots Herring Gas CT to move Cole House and Michael East closer to leader Carlos Oyarzun. Several of the team members in Belize raced in Europe last year, in races like the GP Tell, and the squad will be going back again this year to gain more experience. They are using the Tour of Belize as a handy warm-up, but will still be delighted with the way things are going.

General Classification after Stage 3
1. Carlos Oyarzun (Tecos, Chi) 8h 54m 13s
2. Luciano Santos (Santinos, Arg) at 35”
3. Cole House (USA National Team, Usa) 3’01”
4. Guy East (USA National Team, Usa) 3’11”
5. Jonathan Arellano (Tecos, Mex) 3’29”
6. Bain Foote (Herring Gas Cycling Team, Usa) 3’33”
7. Lizandro Ajcu (Santinos, Gua) 3’52”
8. Jose Choto (C-Ray Tequilla Afamado, Biz) 4’15”
9. Carlos Hernandez (Bennys Megabytes, Gua) 4’25”
10. Ben Bradshaw (USA National Team, Usa) 6’10”

Stage 4: Belize City – Benque Viejo, 130km

Another day, another American win – not for the youngsters on the US development programme though. This time, it was glory for reigning UCI Masters time-trial champion Michael Olheiser. After some aggressive riding from the US team, Wyoming-born Olheiser broke away with Luis Gutierrez (Tecos) and Chad Beyer (USA National Team). The latter was distanced, and on the climb of Mount Hope, Olheiser accelerated and dropped Gutierrez, who was riding defensively for race leader and teammate Oyarzun.

Using his impressive climbing ability, as well as his skills against the clock, to solo to the line in Benque Viejo, the Herring Gas CT rider opened up an unassailable lead to cross the line 4’01” ahead of Gavriel Epstein (Santinos), his nearest challenger from an escape, for his first UCI win. The bunch, containing all the overall contenders, were 5’11” down on the victor.

After the race, a delighted Olheiser mused: “The USA National Team did an awesome job really putting the hammer down early and I just kind of reaped the benefits, after they blew the field apart. Earlier in the race, even two days ago, the opportunities just didn’t present themselves for me to do anything. So we really just planning, trying some good team tactics, to keep people in the break, really work as a team, really just try and focus on doing well overall, try and focus on the TTT last night. We didn’t do quite as well as we wanted to; we felt pretty good. We know it’s a five day stage race and we just knew we had to be real patient and the opportunities present themselves. They come up and you just have to take advantage of them."

On his breakaway companion Gutierrez’s tactics, Olheiser – who has moved up to tenth overall with this result - was understanding: “He had the leader, the yellow jersey, on his team so I really didn’t expect him to do a lot even in the initial break. Tecos was not doing a lot at all and we really knew that they weren’t going to work so we really didn’t even ask them to because they were definitely waiting for the yellow jersey back in the pack. Luckily he came off on the really steep climb so ...”

1. Michael Olheiser (Herring Gas Cycling Team, Usa) 2h 46m 10s
2. Gavriel Epstein (Santinos, Can) 4’01”
3. Luis Gutierrez (Tecos, Mex) 4’03”
4. Walter Gaitan (Nicaragua Honduras Cycling Club, Gua) 4’04”
5. Manuel Oseas Rodas (Cable DX-Decorabanos, Gua) s.t.
6. Peter Choto (GS Cogeas, Biz) s.t.
7. Noe Camacho (C-Ray Tequilla Afamado, Mex) 5’11”
8. Christian McNish (Bennys Megabytes, Pan) s.t.
9. Gregory Lovell (Red Bull, Biz) s.t.
10. Guy East (USA National Team, USA) s.t.

General Classification after Stage 4
1. Carlos Oyarzun (Tecos, Chi) 11h 45m 34s
2. Luciano Santos (Santinos, Arg) at 35”
3. Cole House (USA National Team, Usa) 3’01”
4. Guy East (USA National Team, Usa) 3’11”
5. Jonathan Arellano (Tecos, Mex) 3’29”
6. Bain Foote (Herring Gas Cycling Team, Usa) 3’33”
7. Lizandro Ajcu (Santinos, Gua) 3’52”
8. Jose Choto (C-Ray Tequilla Afamado, Biz) 4’15”
9. Carlos Hernandez (Bennys Megabytes, Gua) 4’25”
10. Michael Olheiser (Herring Gas CT, Usa) 4’59”
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12. Ben Bradshaw (USA National Team) 6’10”
16. Eric Riggs (USA National Team) 8’48”
20. Chad Beyer (USA National Team) 9’55”
21. Brad Armstrong (USA National Team) s.t.
23. Chris Barton (USA National Team) 10’04”
29. Bjorn Selander (USA National Team) 12’29”
30. Peter Salon (USA National Team) 12’50”

Points Classification
1. Carlos Oyarzun (Tecos) 26 points
2. Luciano Santos (Santinos) 22 pts
3. Michael Olheiser (Herring Gas CT) 20 pts
4. Manuel Rodas (Cable DX Decorabanos) 19 pts
5. Cole House (USA National Team) 16 pts
6. Bjorn Selander (USA National Team) 15 pts
7. Christian McNish (Bennys Megabytes) 15 pts
8. Gavriel Epstein (Santinos) 15 pts
9. Luis Gutierrez (Tecos) 13 pts
10. Javier Lindner (Santinos) 12 pts

Mountains Classification
1. Michael Olheiser (Herring Gas CT) 12 pts
2. Luis Gutierrez (Tecos) 11 pts
3. Maxime Vives (Calyon Pro Cycling Team) 8 pts
4. Javier Lindner (Santinos) 5 pts
5. Luciano Santos (Santinos) 4 pts
6. Lizandro Ajcu (Santinos) 4 pts
7. Mauricio Frazer (Santinos) 4 pts
8. Carlos Oyarzun (Tecos) 3 pts
9. Ryan Boudreaux (Herring Gas CT) 3 pts
10. Peter Choto (GS Cogeas) 3 pts