Jittery Joe's to Tour de Georgia

The Jittery Joe's team is getting ready for its 'home' race, the Ford Tour de Georgia, which takes place between April 18 and 23.

"We have done so well the past couple of years that our sponsors have learned to just expect great things," said Micah Rice, general manager of the team. "Some of our sponsors don't know how hard it is to race against teams like Discovery, CSC and Quick Step; they just assume that we will have a big impact on the race."

In 2004, the team won the queen stage of the tour when Cesar Grajales attacked a group with Lance Armstrong, Jens Voigt and Chris Horner with 2 km to go to win on top of Brasstown Bald. In 2005 with Trent Lowe, the Bean Team managed to defend the GE Best Young Rider jersey for four days against a hard charging Saul Raisin.

The team heads into the tour with the following roster: Trent Wilson, Jeff Hopkins, Evan Elken, Craig Wilcox, Peter Hatton, Phil Wong, Austin King and Neil Shirley.

"Trent is riding really well right now and his experience at the last two Giri d'Italia will really help lead the team," said Rice. "We have a number of other riders riding good and we expect to have a trick or two up our sleeve for next week."