The SRAM Tour of the Gila continued Saturday with a challenging one mile criterium which was won with a textbook sprint finish by SRAM Force-equipped Land Rover Orbea’s twenty-year old Roman Van Uden. Van Uden said the rider in front of him moved over and opened up a straight line to the finish, which he took full advantage of with a perfect two-handed salute to the 5,000+ Silver City crowd as he crossed the line. Van Uden was swarmed by the press and the youngster was obviously in great spirits in what was certainly a top notch win in his short career.

The Pro Men’s final laps were marred by crashes that required Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny’s) to make a bike change, taking teammate Chris Horner’s larger steed, while Kelly Benefits' Alex Candelario went down hard. No reports on injuries. The crashes occured in the closing laps on turn two and turn four. Turn two was an uphill left out of a strong headwind section and turn four was a 40+ mph left sweeper in the finishing straight.

More updates, pics and video will be loaded in the next few days onto www.theroaddiaries.com. Tomorrow’s Gila Monster Road Race is the final stage of the SRAM Tour of the Gila. Levi Leipheimer still maintains his overall lead.