Jamis finishes one-two at Redlands Bicycle Classic opener

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Team Jamis put on dominant show during the opening stage of the Redlands Bicycle Classic Wednesday when Ruben Companioni soloed to the stage win and his teammate Sebastian Haedo won the field sprint for second. Holowesko-Citadel's Travis McCabe was third ahead of Jelly Belly-Maxxis rider Jacob Rathe.

Companioni broke away with three other riders very early in the 20-lap race on a 4.5km suburban circuit, then dropped his companions with five laps to go and held off the nearly 200-rider men's field to take the win.

"I saw the bunch was getting closer and the other guys in the break were starting to get tired," Companioni said of his decision to go it alone. "I calculated the distance to the finish and I was confident I could hold that speed by myself for those five laps."

Companioni went into the final five laps with a lead of more than two minutes, and despite chases from Holowesko-Citadel, Rally Cycling and Jelly Belly-Maxxis in succession, he was able to hold off the field with just a handful of seconds to spare. The win is the third for Companioni this season after he won two criteriums last month in Florida, but he said Wednesday's victory was his biggest so far.

"I won a stage in the Vuelta a Costa Rica a couple of years ago, and I won a Pan American championship on the track a few years ago, and I've won criteriums at the national level, but definitely this is the best win I've had in the US," he said.

Lupus Racing's Thomas Vaubourzeix, Arapahoe Resources' Julio Padilla and Gateway Harley Davidson's Dennis Ramirez initially joined Companioni in a breakaway that got away just three laps into the 20-lap race. When Companioni attacked the group to collect the KOM points with 12 laps to go, Ramirez couldn't hold the pace, and the move was down to three riders.

The trio built an advantage of more than three minutes, but when their advantage started coming back down, Companioni decided to jettison his breakaway companions then simply powered his way to the finish. McCabe said he knew Companioni was in good form and was a dangerous rider, but it was difficult to organize a concerted chase that was able to bring him back.

"I think everyone underestimated the power and strength that Ruben has right now," McCabe said. "We talked about it yesterday that anything that got out to three minutes was going to be a threat to bring back. We went to the front with 10 to go I believe, and pretty much spent our bullets early on. It's a hot day today and I think we underestimated the heat in the first race of the year."

Rally Cycling tried for several laps to cut into Companioni's lead, but the team also found the task difficult. Jelly Belly took the reins next with a similar result.

"We would go to the front and we couldn't do it," McCabe said. "[Rally Cycling] went to the front and couldn't do it. Jelly Belly tried going to the front and they couldn't do it, and at that point everyone was pretty much burnt. There was a point where we were bringing him back. We had him at 1:20, and everyone just underestimated him. They thought it was just one guy."

The impressive start to the race could prove to be a hard act to follow for Jamis. The team does have Janier Acevedo waiting in the wings for the Oak Glen climb. The Colombian rode for Cannondale the past two years and already this year finished second during a mountain stage at the Tour de San Luis, but director Sebastian Alexandre tried to downplay the expectations for his team after stage 1, saying instead they'd take it one day at a time.

"We came into today's stage trying to win," he said. "Our strategy was to work for Sebastian, so it was good to have Ruben off the front to relieve the others guys in the field not to have responsibility to chase. But at the end of the day Ruben was feeling good. "He's been feeling good since the beginning of the year," Alexandre said. "He showed that at the two races he won in Florida. So we gave him the green light to go for it. Once he went solo I knew he was going to be able to hold it."

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