Tour of Hainan
November 11-19

Prolog  3rd Brad Huff   7th Bernard Van Ulden  16th Kiel Reijnen

Stage One  11th Kiel Reijnen

Stage Two  3rd Brad Huff

Stage Three  1st Brad Huff

Stage Four    5th Kiel Reijnen   14th Brad Huff    25th Bernard Van Ulden

Stage Five    1st Brad Huff

Stage Six   11th Kiel Reijnen  29th Nick Riestad

Stage Seven 12th Kiel Reijnen  26th Bernard Van Ulden

Stage Eight  2nd Brad Huff

(General classification) GC  5th Kiel Reijnen  11th Bernard Van Ulden  38th Nick Riestad
Team GC 4th
Points 3rd Brad Huff

The second to last stage of the Tour of Hainan was the longest one so far. The Seventh Stage, which was 210km of creeping uphill battles, included two CAT 2 climbs and one CAT 1 climb. But as usual, the Jelly Belly boys were able to handle the terrain.

As most riders can understand, the seventh day of racing and the second to last day of the season made it hard to muster the strength to keep going. Yet Kiel Reijnen and Bernard Van Ulden remained close and both finished only ten second behind the lead group. Nick Reistad wasn’t far behind in the third group.

Brad Huff had given it his all earlier in the race, and after winning two stages and placing in the top three in others, health problems got the better of him and the crosswinds didn’t help either.

But the final stage, Stage Eight was not like the seventh. It was the shortest stage of the tour, at only 102km. There were still two CAT 3 climbs, but Team Director Danny Van Haute said the team, as usual, worked together and took care of Huff. Huff could not have ended up in 2^nd place after the final sprint if it weren’t for his team members.

The 2008 Tour of Hainan was incredibly successful for the JB boys, as they were on the podium five times with two 3^rd place wins, one 2^nd place win and two 1^st place wins.

Molly Saunders

PR Jelly Belly Cycling Team

Stage Six of the Tour of Hainan had the most KOM climbs so far, with two category 2 climbs and one category 3 climb. It was 135km which began in Danzhou and ended Changjiang. Once again, tailwinds made this mountainous climbing stage incredibly fast-paced.

After Brad Huff’s awesome performance at the last few stages, Team Director Danny Van Haute said it was evident that he was not feeling up to par. At the first climb, which was a category 3, Huff came off the back with Matty Rice and about ten other riders. However, this group of riders was able to make the time limit in order to start Stage Seven.

Molly Saunders

PR Jelly Belly Cycling Team

Now that Brad Huff stole his second Tour of Hainan stage win today, Jelly Belly can claim more stage wins and more fans. Huff has now claimed two stage wins at this tour alone, stages three and five.

Stage five will be the second longest stage once the Tour is concluded on Thursday. Beginning in Chengmai, cyclists rode more than 170km to the northwestern city of Danzhou. After Stage Four’s violent crosswinds, which added overall time to most of the Jelly Belly team, Stage Five offered twice as many incentives for riders to make up those crucial seconds.

Stage Five had three sprint lines and one category 3 King of the Mountain (KOM) climb, which Team Director Danny Van Haute said was the big problem for the guys during that stage.

“Our mechanic, Niel Lacey, was busy today with two flats – Kiel Reijnen and Matty Rice,” Van Haute said. “Both riders rode very hard to join the field after their wheels were changed. They wanted to be up there to help the others lead out for Brad. And, once again, the JB boys went to the front with 3km to go and led Brad out for the win.”

Overall, the team, its sponsors and, especially, its fans should be proud of the performance thus far at the 2008 Tour of Hainan. Not only has the team proven it’s here to stay, it has shown the cycling world it is a force to be reckoned with.

Stage Six looks to shake things up a bit with 135km of mountainous terrain. It will offer cyclists three KOM opportunities, as well as two sprint lines.

Molly Saunders

PR Jelly Belly Cycling Team

The Island of Hainan showed the Jelly Belly Team today how vicious its winds can be, especially when they aren’t helping from behind. Yesterday concluded the fourth stage of the Tour of Hainan. It was 162km which began where the riders left off Friday, in the capital city of Haikou, and traveled to Chengmai.

The crosswinds, said Team Director Danny Van Haute, were really nasty all day. And why are they bad for the riders? Because they force the field to split, and often into more than one large group, or break. It only took about 20km for the first group to break off, which had about 25 riders in it, including three Jelly Belly riders: Kiel Reijnen, Bernard Van Ulden and Stage Three winner Brad Huff. After that, Matty Rice and Nick Reistad joined the second group that broke away from the main peloton.

At the end, the first group gained a 2.30min lead, and the newest team member, Kiel Reijnen, gained some serious time by placing 5^th at the end of the day.

“When the race ended there were four groups on the road,” Van Haute said, which just goes to prove the cross-winds theory. Three JB rider were in the first group, one (Reistad) was in the second, and Rice held on in the third.

“I was proud though,” Van Haute added. “It was a good day for the young Jelly Belly rider.”

Molly Saunders

PR Jelly Belly Cycling Team

Brad Huff won the Third Stage of the Tour of Hainan, and it was one of best days of the year for the team. Talk about a breakneck speed, the Third Stage of the Tour of Hainan proved to be one of the fastest stages Jelly Belly has completed all season. It began in Wenchang and traveled 148km over flat roads to Hainan’s capital city of Haikou.

Even though the day was filled with cross-winds, the majority of the winds came from behind. It was these tailwinds that helped push the peloton to an average of 30mph for the first hour of the day.

A five man break, which included JB rider Nick Riestad, quickly gained a 30sec lead over the pack, but they were caught after only about 10km. Coming into Haikou, the Team got out front to protect Brad Huff with 5km to go. At 2km, Riestad and Matty Rice were done leading out, so Bernard Van Ulden took over and dropped Huff off with about 600m to the line. A few riders from other teams started to pass by Huff, so he took advantage of their power and got onto their wheels. At 250km, Huff was tired of watching from behind, so he took off and won the stage, blinding fans with his lively JB jersey as he crossed the line.

“I was very pleased with the results,” Van Haute said. “The JB guys look great.  They have showed me, once again, that we can race at any level around the world.”

Molly Saunders

PR Jelly Belly Cycling Team