Health Net’s Kyle Gritters wins Taiwan stage

Health Net-Maxxis rider Kyle Gritters followed course directions in Friday’s Tour de Taiwan stage — even when the race officials didn’t — to win the stage. Gritters’ teammate John Murphy retains the overall lead and the leads the points competition in the race, which concludes Sunday.

The rolling, 127km stage was chaotic, according to team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo, due to the rainy, windy conditions. But he said things got really interesting in the latter part of the stage.

After a series of breaks – including one of 20 riders that included all the race leaders – came and went, Gritters joined a break of six riders

Entering a round-about, the lead car in the race caravan led the break straight when they should have gone left. Four members of the break followed the lead car. Gritters followed the red arrows marking the course pointing left and suddenly found himself and Valeriy Kobzarenko alone on the road, racing for the stage win, with the main bunch chasing them. Meanwhile, the four other break members were chasing back to the main bunch after the unintended deviation.

Gritters, who is a former U23 national criterium champion, bested Kobzarenko in the sprint to earn the stage win.

FILED UNDER: Road