The 2011 professional cycling season opens this weekend with the San Dimas Stage Race, and Jelly Belly p/b Kenda will be at the starting line.
Eight riders – many of them first-year pros – are in the Jelly Belly lineup and will put to the test the skills and teamwork they’ve been honing since training camp earlier this year.
“San Dimas is a higher level race, as in the competition, as in the course. So we’ll see what happens. They’re ready for it,” said team director Danny Van Haute.
Van Haute fielded a similar lineup of riders at the Tour of Murrieta to give his rookies some racing experience. San Dimas will do that and more, by bringing together all the continental level pro teams in the U.S., as well as amateur teams, for the first time this year.
The three-day race includes a 4.8-mile, uphill time trial on the first day. Jelly Belly p/b Kenda trained there in February and will see the course again at the Amgen Tour of California, coming up in May.
“We know the course quite well,” Van Haute said.
Stage 2 of San Dimas is an 85-mile road race Saturday, followed by a criterium on Sunday.
Van Haute said he’s eager to see how young riders like Cameron Cogburn, Emerson Oronte, Nic Hamilton and Alex Hagman handle the climbing.
Rounding out the field for Jelly Belly p/b Kenda are Carson Miller, Sergio Hernandez, Alastair Loutit, Ken Hanson and Sean Mazich.
Van Haute predicts he’ll have at least two riders finish in the top 20.
“They know what they have to do,” he said. “It’s a step higher.”
