Day continues winning streak in Redlands

Ben Day (Fly V Australia) hopped out of one yellow jersey winning performance at the San Dimas Stage Race last weekend and straight into another after winning the Redlands Bicycle Classic’s prologue. The Australian rolled onto the starting ramp as the last rider of the day and the odds-on favorite.

Day didn’t disappoint the crowd when he flew to the top of the five kilometre course in 9:16 minutes, beating Jelly Belly teammates Carter Jones and Kiel Reijnen, with just four second separating the trio.

“I was a little bit nervous today because I put pressure on myself to win,” Day said. “I came into today as the favourite and that always adds pressure but I drew on that. I didn’t win by much but I’m just really happy to win. It is a close race still. The guys are going great and we are ready for tomorrow.”

Fly V Australia’s eight-man roster proved it is capable of defending a race lead from start to finish last weekend in San Dimas. Day expects nothing less of his teammates during the following three stages at the Redlands Bicycle Classic. He now leads the general classification by two seconds over Jones and four seconds ahead of Reijnen.

“I heard a bit of muttering before the start that the Jelly Belly guys were doing well today,” Day said. “I don’t know how many guys they’ve got here but they seem to be on top of the leader board. We didn’t see them race last weekend but they are obviously going well and will add a little dimension to the racing this week.”

Day’s win also placed him in the early lead of the event’s sprint and mountains classification. Jones leads the event’s best young rider category.

Day’s teammates will have their hands full containing Jelly Belly’s Jones, Reijnen and Will Routley who are all sitting inside the top 10. Notable overall contenders in close contention include Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) in fourth place, Ben Jacques-Maynes and Jeremy Vennell (Bissell) in fifth and sixth place respectively, Luis Amaran (Jamis-Sutter Home) in ninth and Nathan O’Neill (Bahati Foundation), who rounded out the top 10.

“I surprised myself today,” said Jones, a University of Colorado student on spring break this week. “I thought I had a good shot of being competitive, I went for it and it worked out. I will definitely try and stay up in there for the GC. But we have so many cards to play. How does that happen?”

Reijnen is confident that the Jelly Belly team will be able to utilise its staggered positioning in the top 10 to take one more step up on the podium by the end of the week.

“It was our goal here to do well as a team,” Reijnen said. “We definitely surprised ourselves some after today but we have a great new roster and sponsors. I think a combination of those things lead to a stellar result and lifted the moral of the team.

“This is a good stage race for us and a race where it is good to come from behind,” he added. “I think the position we are in is perfect. We don’t have to just rely on one guy; we can really change it up and take advantage of the situation.”

Racing continues tomorrow with the City of Beaumont Road Race, which includes a slight downhill for the first nine kilometres followed by a climb to 900 feet over the next six kilometres. It will drop down onto the Beaumont’s 28 km circuit that includes a King (and Queen) of the Mountain ascent on each lap. The men will complete five laps totaling 168 kilometres.

Neben powers into race lead

Former UCI World Time Trial Champion Amber Neben (Dare To Be-BMW-Bianchi) won the opening prologue at the Redlands Bicycle Classic. Neben is no stranger to the five-kilometre uphill time trial, having won the event on three previous occasions. This year she finished the parcours in a time of 10:56 minutes, outpacing Mara Abbott (Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12) by 16 seconds and third placed Evelyn Stevens (HTC-Columbia) by an additional five seconds.

“This race is fun for me because it’s close to home,” Neben said. “I never know what kind of form I’m going to have. To try to throw down for 10 minutes, I can at least do that and then we will see what is going to happen for the rest of the week. I’m healthy and I’m good.”

Neben won the Redlands Bicycle Classic overall in 2006 and 2007. She will start stage two’s City of Beaumont Road Race prepared to defend her overall race lead against some of the strongest teams in the nation, including Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY 12, HTC-Columbia, Webcor-Builders, TIBCO, Colavita-Baci and Team Vera Bradley Foundation. The prologue victory also places her in the lead of the points and climber’s classification.

“I’m feeling ‘winter’ strong right now,” Neben said. “That is a lot different from being ‘race-fit’ strong. Of course, I always want to go for the win but we will see what happens. There are some really strong teams here and some really strong riders so I will go out to race, have fun and see what happens.”

“I think riders will be more alert and the depth of the teams is big, with more strong riders this year,” she added. “That will make it a lot harder to control the race. I will enjoy it and get some race fitness out of it too.”

Abbott was pleased with her performance, after clocking a similar time to when she won the prologue in 2008. Current UCI World Time Trial Champion Kristin Armstrong is now the directeur sportif at Abbott’s Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12 team and was cheering her riders at the top of the climb.

“This is a really cool time trial because it is so varied and there are so many ways that you can attack it,” Abbott said. “It really gets your head into a critical time trial mode and gets you looking at where your strengths and weaknesses are as a rider. It was really special to have Kristin here and we can learn so much for her. She knows exactly what an athlete is looking for and what you want to here. She knows how to relate to and support each of us.”

Third placed on the day Stevens is looking forward to a tactical game between the top teams and individual riders as the race progresses over the next three stages. Her teammate and defending champion Ina-Yoko Teutenberg placed fourth on the day.

“I think we have a really strong team and we want to get one of our riders in the yellow,” Stevens said. “We have a lot of options and it’s going to be a great few days of racing.”

Stevens competed in the Redlands Bicycle Classic under the Velo Classic Tours-InCycle team placing 14th in the time trial last year. She went on to win the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic and the Cascade Cycling Classic late last summer.

“Last year I literally flew from work right before the race and then took a red-eye flight home,” Stevens said. “To be able to focus on the race and have the support of HTC-Columbia is awesome. I like the course and it’s really hard, painful. I think if you were not in pain then you didn’t do it right.”

More photos coming!

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