This weekend members of the Jelly Belly squad will be traveling to Greenville, South Carolina to compete in the National Time Trial and Road Race Championships. Riders Kiel Reijnen, Phil Gaimon, Matt Crane and Bernard van Ulden will be racing in both the Time Trial and the Road Race; Nick Reistad will be racing in the Road Race.
“At this point in the season, your training has been the series of races you’ve done over the last months, and you don’t really have time to focus on one particular race,” Gaimon explained.
With the individual time trial taking place on Saturday, the men will have time to rest and recuperate before heading out and fighting as a team on the roads on Sunday. Saturday’s Time Trial will lead the men around a 6.9 mile course three times, totaling 20.7 miles for the entire race. Sunday’s Road Race consists of 110 mile course and includes circuits which lead the peloton up high ridges and into downtown Greenville for a three-lap finishing circuit, which will be great for the competition and the fans, alike.
“For the road race I would like to improve on my 17th last year,” Reijnen said. “I know I can make it over the climb with the front group so I have to think about tactics on the final local laps and try to not make any mistakes in the final few kilometers.”
As for the team tactics, Reijnen added that there is almost always an early break and for the team to do well it’s important to be represented in that break “so that we can follow wheels until the final laps.”
All of the riders prefer different ways of training for individual races.
“I keep a pretty consistent training schedule, and although it’s intense, it seems to work quite well for me,” van Ulden stated. “The only thing I’ve been doing more of lately than I normally do is motorpacing, which means drafting off a scooter at 50 plus kilometers per hour for about an hour on the TT bike. To me it’s one of the best workouts out there. It really gets you turning your legs over PDQ, and gets your intensity in like no other but doesn’t totally thrash your legs like intervals do because you’re drafting.”
Reijnen has also been looking forward to the time trial.
“For the TT I am looking to gain experience,” he said. “It is good practice for Missouri and we don’t get the opportunity to do too many long TTs in the U.S.”
After this weekend, the entire team heads to St. Louis for the start of the 3rd Annual Tour of Missouri on September 7, Labor Day.
-Molly Saunders
Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team PR
