Today was another breakaway day for the Jelly Belly Pro Cycling team, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with the Jelly Belly Candy Co., the longest running sponsorship of any Continental US Pro Cycling Team. While there were a few small breaks very early on in the day, the one that eventually stuck was begun by Jelly Belly rider Bernard van Ulden.
When van Ulden took off he was on his own for a while, until three riders caught his wheel and stayed with him until the final 6 miles. Those three riders were Jeff Louder of BMC, Brad White of OUCH and Mike Creed of Team Type 1. For the day van Ulden got 3rd place in the first sprint and 2nd in the KOM.
“We like to have a breakaway, because even if the one of us in the break doesn’t take the stage, it sets it up nicely for our man Brad Huff to have a chance at a sprint stage finish,” van Ulden explained. “The last thing you want if you have a good sprinter in the peloton is for the breakaway to be caught 20km from the line. Then all the opportunists that have been sitting in the pack all day start taking shots because that makes everything really inconsistent, and your sprinter can loose a lot of energy that way instead of saving it up for the finish line.”
As far as tomorrow’s effort is concerned, van Ulden says he won’t know how much effort he can give until the time comes to race.
“It’s happened both ways for me: I’ve sat in the pack all week and given it all my effort on TT day and last year, I gained two minutes over my previous time, but really only moved up three spots. But it’s a new course tomorrow so you never know what will happen.”
-Molly Saunders
PR Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team
