Powers in the middle: Jeremy has a laugh at the start (click to enlarge).

The second annual Amgen Tour of California has come and gone, and the excitement it generated exceeded the high expectations created by last year’s race.

Brice gets his shoes on before the prologue (click to enlarge).

Making their race debut as a team, the 2007 Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team was cheered wildly by the over 1.6 million spectators who lined the streets over the 8-day stage race.

The race has quickly earned a reputation as the most prestigious and competitive stage race in the United States, and having competed in last year’s event, the Jelly Belly riders knew what was in store for them and arrived much better prepared.

The Jelly Belly Mobile and the team car parked in San Francisco (click to enlarge)

According to Team Director Danny Van Haute, “The riders’ conditioning coming into this race was much, much better than last year. This year they were at about 80-85% of their top fitness levels, which is where you want to be this early in the season. You don’t want to peak too early; you want to get fitter over the course of the year. We’re off to a great start.”

Team Jelly Belly outside the San Francisco Ferry Building (click to enlarge)

The pair of first-year pros, Bryce Mead and Brian Dziewa (pronounced “ja-va”) felt a bit awestruck amid so many legendary competitors and on one of the toughest courses in the world, but they rose to the occasion according to Van Haute.

“Brian and Bryce were a little surprised. They’ve never raced at this level and were kind of thrown into the lion’s den. But they did everything they were asked to do. They got bottles from the car. They protected Andy (Bajadali) from the wind. They were the workhorses of the team. They were actually a little disappointed with their performances after the race, but they should be pleased with their performances. I was.”

The Baj takes off in Solvang (click to enlarge).

The team managed some terrific results, especially considering the difficulty of the race and the elite competition (no fewer than nine ProTour teams raced in The Tour). Veteran sprinter Alex Candelario finished in 8^th place on Stage 6.

“All the guys ahead of him were ProTour guys,” recalled Van Haute. “We knew Alex was one of the best sprinters in the country; now we know he’s one of the best in the world.”

The guys get ready in San Luis Obispo (click to enlarge).

Alex also got 14^th on the final stage, while Nick Reistad nabbed 13^th on the same stage and Brice Jones got into the top 10 at 9^th.

Even more impressively, the Jelly Belly boys won the team classification on the 7^th and last stage. That means the cumulative time of all the stage finishers on team Jelly Belly was lower than all the other teams in the race that day. Van Haute is especially pleased.

Brice greets a young fan (click to enlarge).

“This year’s Jelly Belly riders are gelling better on and off the bike than any other team I’ve managed. I’ve never seen anything like it. The right chemistry is definitely there. I’m very encouraged for the season ahead.”

As usual, team Jelly Belly was a big hit with the fans.

“You can see from the team car that everyone’s cheering for us,” said Van Haute. “Of course, it doesn’t hurt that my mechanic Drew (Jimenez) and I are always tossing Jelly Belly jelly bean samples out to them. Our team car definitely gets more cheers than anyone else’s.”