Huff leads Jelly Belly one-two

Brad Huff (Jelly Belly-Kenda) won his second consecutive race in a bunch sprint at the Brady Village Criterium, round two of Tulsa Tough on Saturday night. Huff’s last lead-out man Sean Mazich hung on for second place ahead of Kyle Gritters (Williams Cycling p/b SCVelo).

“It was a great race as a team again,” Huff said. “We have four guys here and we were able to win two days in a row. My last lead-out guy got second today too.

“Sean came from our development team and he is an up and coming sprinter,” he added. “He is kind of a raw type sprinter and all power for about 400-metres. He is so impressive. Our team was able to control the race on the last lap. I jumped off of Sean’s wheel coming out of the last corner and it was one big drag race to the line.”

Some 100 professional men competed on an L-shaped course located in the Brady Arts district of Tulsa. “The atmosphere here is amazing here in Brady Village,” Huff said. “There is a bar here called the SoundPony that is a bike themed bar and has one of my national championship jerseys on the wall. There were tons of people on top of the hill and through the finish line.”

Hotel San Jose-Mellow Johnny’s did much of the work to bring back a late-race breakaway of 10 riders. Similar to the previous night’s event, Amgen-Giant Masters and Hotel San Jose-Mellow Johnny’s pushed their riders to the front in an attempt over take the Jelly Belly lead-out train, set in place for Brad Huff.

“Both of those teams have two strong sprinters,” Huff said. “Because we only have four guys in the race it is important for us to have some of the other teams come in and help out. The fact that Hotel San Jose and Amgen are able to come out and help is a great thing for all the amateur teams to show that they can come up, be aggressive and prosper off of it.”

Higgins takes Tulsa two in Brady Village

Cari Higgins (Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12) captured round two of the Tulsa Tough at the Brady Village Criterium on Saturday night. Higgins out-paced Jennifer Purcell (MSU Cycling) for the victory while Christina Gokey-Smith (VeloForma) placed third.

The women’s race ignited early on with a flurry of attacks coming from teams Tibco, Vera Bradley Foundation, Team Type 1 and Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12. A crash on the backside of the course caused several riders to enter the mechanic’s pit for service before jumping back into the ring.

Several breakaways gained a few seconds but there never seemed to be the right mix of riders interested in working together to gain time on the peloton. The evening’s cash primes on offer helped keep the field moving together at a fast pace.

A small group of four riders attempted to escape the field in the final three laps of the race. The group included dangerous sprinters from teams Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12 and Tibco.

Team Type 1 made several counter attacks as the peloton blasted through the start-finish line with two laps to go. The heavy-hitting sprinters worked their way into position for a field sprint won by Higgins.

Results