Redlands, CA - Apparently, that close third place sprint finish that Rory Sutherland of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis scored behind Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) and Mark Renshaw (Credit Agricole) back in January at the Jayco Bay Series in Australia was no fluke.

Sutherland joined the break of the day in the second stage of the Redlands classic - a five-man operation that went away with nearly an hour remaining in the 90-minute criterium - then sprinted away to a comfortable win coming out of the final turn of the technical, eight-turn course. "I'm actually really good in short sprints like that," the 25-year-old Australian noted.

The win came none too soon for the team after two frustrating days to open the Redlands Classic. "The team really needed the win," Sutherland said. "It was good for the team, and it was also really good to win in front of our host family, the Robertsons," he added.

Sutherland has been living in Redlands with the Robertsons since the end of team training camp in January.

The stage opened with a flurry of attacks but none stuck until Sutherland rolled off with Kayle Leogrande (Rock Racing), Josh Thornton (KodakGallery-Sierra Nevada), Jacob Erker (Symmetrics) and Tommy Nankervis (Jittery Joe's) barely more than a half-hour into the 90-minute crit. The five riders powered away from the peloton, opening a gap of around 35 seconds that held for the remainder of the stage, with Sutherland and company officially finishing 32 seconds ahead of the peloton. "Being up there took a lot of stress off our guys in the bunch as well," Sutherland said.

With the 12-second winner's time bonus, Sutherland jumped from 23rd place up to 17th overall, 2:02 behind race leader Scott Moninger (BMC). Sutherland's teammate, Ryder Hesjedal, is the team's highest place rider on GC, in 6th place at 0:46 behind Moninger.

The Redlands Classic Sunday concludes with the Sunset Circuit Race. "We'll have a good crack at the GC tomorrow as well," Sutherland added.