Fresno, CA - Heading into the third and final stage of the Central Valley Classic, an 80-minute criterium, Rory Sutherland of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis needed to make up 18 seconds on first overall Ben Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health). His teammates did everything within their power to get Sutherland up the road.

"We hit them as often as we could and tried to isolate them," Russell Downing said of the team's efforts to put Priority Health in difficulty. "There were a couple crashes, and we couldn't attack out of those, so that limited things a bit."

At one point, with teammates Jeff Louder and Kyle Gritters up the road in a dangerous move, Sutherland lined up with Tim Johnson and Russell Downing and the two riders launched Sutherland off the front. "We wanted to get him up to the break so Jeff and Kyle could drive it and maybe get Rory the time back," said Downing. The move worked, helping Sutherland bridge to the front group. But Priority Health defended Jacques-Maynes' lead well and brought the move back.

With 15 minutes to go, Downing had a dig in a break of four that looked as if it might stay away. But Toyota-United, working for Henk Vogels, brought it back two laps later, and delivered Vogels to the win. Downing hung on for 5th, with Sutherland close behind in 7th, but still the same 18 seconds behind Jacques-Maynes, in second overall.

"We raced really well as a team this weekend," Downing noted. "It was mostly a different set of guys from who Rory and I raced with the last couple weeks and we gelled and worked together really well. It bodes well for the rest of the season."

Two man show

From the opening stage road race and through the tough Stage 2 time trial, it became apparent that the battle was between Sutherland and Jacques-Maynes. The Priority Health rider won the opening stage out of the remnants of a seven-man break, with Sutherland finished third behind Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics), ending up 14 seconds back after time bonuses.

The second stage individual time trial would be decisive. Sutherland posted a strong time of 35:06 on the rolling, 16.5-mile course.

"I felt really good during the TT," Sutherland said. "It was a hard course, but I felt good early on." In fact, it wasn't long before he had his minute man, David Vittoria (BMC) in his sights. "It was a good race for getting my confidence back in the TT."

But Jacques-Maynes was also on another good day, and bested Sutherland by just four seconds to take his second consecutive stage win and set up the overall victory.