The Jelly Belly Team was welcomed with open arms this weekend at the Joe Martin Bicycle Classic in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Jelly Belly fans whooped and hollered for the Team while they traveled the Natural State for this 32nd annual four day stage race.
The first day was a hard 2.2 mile steep, uphill individual TT. Only two JB riders finished in the top twenty. But day two was quite different. With a 110 mile road race ahead of them, Jelly Belly joined the attacks early on, which gave Jeremy Powers the chance to stay in a small lead group for about 5 miles. About 1 mile from the top of the main climb, Phil Gaimon attacked. Gaimon kept at least a 40 sec lead until 5 miles to the end, where he was caught by the field. Matty Rice sprinted into 8th place after Stage Two.
The ninety-mile Stage Three road race presented more unexpected but beautiful weather for the riders, who were quite thankful to have sun and no winds. Like Stage Two, there were tons of early attacks, but the one that held on for the longest included Matty Crane, and at one point had more than a one minute lead over the pack. Nick Riestad was injured in mid-race pileup, and Brad Huff broke a front derailur with only 6 miles to go. So, a fresh bike was quickly grabbed by mechanic John Sessa off the Lexus Team Car and Powers helped him back into the peloton with 4 miles to go. Brad ended up in 7th place.
Stage Four was an incredibly fast 90 minute criterium, full of ups and downs and 90 degree turns. After an hour, Matty Rice attacked hard and seven riders joined him to keep a 30 second lead until two laps to go. Jelly Belly did its job, leading out its sprinters and Brad Huff ended in 5th place.
The Team did well, said Team Director Danny van Haute, but there is always room for improvement.
“All in all, the Team needs to do twenty-five percent better than they did this week to really win more races. It will happen.”
Molly Saunders
PR Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team