May 29, 2011 (Killington, VT) – Brett Tivers (Garneau-Club Chaussures-Norton Rose) and Sue Schlatter (Stevens Racing presented by the Cyclery) were the big winners today at Sunday’s Stage 2 Long Trail Time Trial and have seized the overall leads in the Pro Men and Pro Women’s races respectively going into tomorrow’s difficult stage 3 road race.

Tivers and last year’s race winner Hugo Houle outclassed the 120 rider field in averaging almost 30mph on the 11 mile course. Tim Mitchell (CCB Racing Team), who has earned a masters national championship in the discipline, rounded out the top 3 and all 3 riders are the leaders on General Classification going into tomorrow’s final stage. Expect Tivers’ squad to do all it can to control the lone wolf Houle and bring this year’s Tour of the Battenkill winner to the top of the K1 summit at Killington in the race lead. They will have no margin for error, as the gap between the 2 going into tomorrow’s road race is only 3 seconds.

Last year’s women’s winner Schlatter, along with Denise Ramsden (Team Juvederm-Specialized) smoked the large women’s field to make it a 3 person shootout for the GC title tomorrow. Schlatter will be in a familiar position, having led after the time trial last year; but both yesterday’s stage winner Veronique Labonte (Team Juvederm-Specialized) and Ramsden are only 10 and 14 seconds away. The question of the day will be if Schlatter can withstand the tag team effort that will come from Ramsden and Labonte, as either one of them is more that capable of taking the stage tomorrow and the win for the weekend.

The queen stage is Monday’s Stage 3 Champion Systems Road Race, a 62 mile parcours with 3 major climbs including the grueling East Mountain Rd and the finishing climb up to the K1 Base Lodge on the top of the Killington Mountain Resort. Race updates will be posted on both Twitter (@KillingtonSR) and on Facebook (Killington Stage Race) throughout the weekend. (ed note: depending on internet availability)

The 2011 Killington Stage Race is brought to you in part by the Town of Killington Economic Development and Tourism Board, Long Trail Brewery, The Mountain Times, Champion Systems, Raw Revolution natural and organic food bars, and by Vermont Pure Spring water.

Stage 2 Results HERE.
GC after Stage 2 HERE.