Fayetteville, AR - For the third consecutive year, the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis has won the overall title of the Joe Martin Stage Race, narrowly missing a repeat of the 2006 race when they swept every stage as well.

This year, it was Rory Sutherland coming out on top by a narrow four-second margin over Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United), on the strength of his win in the Stage 3 uphill individual time trial Saturday evening. Sutherland won the TT by eight seconds over former U.S. national time trial champion Chris Baldwin, taking over the overall lead from his teammate Karl Menzies, who had won the second stage, a 90-mile road race, earlier Saturday afternoon, after finishing 4th in the opening stage on Friday.

The final stage criterium was set to be a battle, with Stevic (Toyota-United) sitting just six seconds behind Sutherland on GC coming in, while Baldwin was only two more seconds in arrears. But it was the Colombian CAICO team of 4th overall Javier Zapata (0:12) that was most aggressive at trying to gain an advantage. Toyota-United also threw in a number of attacks to get Stevic and Baldwin on top.

But Health Net Presented by Maxxis wouldn't crack. From lap one on the hard, technical course, the team assumed its position at the front of the peloton and defended against every attack.

"We were in a similar position last year," noted team directeur sportif Jeff Corbett. "We had to defend a thin lead for Gord Fraser then, and we felt we could repeat that this year."

The team used up just about everyone defending. "We burned a lot of matches by the end," Corbett said. Kyle Gritters and Tim Johnson, veterans of the 2006 defensive effort, also contributed this year, along with John Murphy, Frank Pipp and Kirk O'Bee. By the final lap, the team was down to Shawn Milne leading out for Sutherland and Menzies.

It was more than enough. Menzies collected his second stage win - and a time bonus that moved him to 5th overall. With six seconds of time bonus on offer for second, Stevic had a dig at trying to tie Sutherland on time. But the Australian was glued to his wheel, finishing third on the stage and collecting his own four-second time bonus. As a result, Stevic was only able to close two seconds with his time bonus and ended up 2nd overall.