After a successful 2011 American Continental team adds strength and WorldTour experience to its line up
The Kenda-5 Hour Energy presented by Gear Grinder team is looking for further improvements to what it regards as a successful 2011 season. To this aim, the team has taken on some big names for 2012, including John Murphy, who has spent the last two seasons with WorldTour team BMC Racing, and Andy Jacques-Maynes, who has been at rival US team Bissell for the last three.
The team does say goodbye to one its most successful riders of 2011 though. Ben Day was rescued by the team after the collapse of the Pegasus Racing Team; the Australian has landed a place at Professional Continental team UnitedHealthcare.
Day took victory in the opening time trial of the San Dimas Stage Race in March and the team, which has its roots in the criterium circuit, managed to defend his lead and take the overall victory in the three day race.
"It was a new feeling for the team to be defending a jersey," said sports director Frankie Andreu. "We have had jerseys, but never the team to defend it. We have always been a criterium based team, and defending an important jersey, let alone the yellow one, was new."
That victory, as well as results like a solo stage victory and second overall for Bobby Sweeting in the 2.2-ranked Tour of Elk Grove, have made founder and general manager Chad Thompson very happy with the season’s work.
"We had a great year, despite the many challenges of a pro team," said Thompson. "We have experienced numerous positives, as well as some negatives that plague many other teams, such as non-paying sponsors, illness, bad crashes, and staff changes. But these guys and this program are amazing. Seriously amazing.
“We have taken a don't-look-back approach to the program and aim to improve and escalate our program's focus and talent each year,” he added. “We have definitely done that for 2012 in order to capture the major race organizers' attention [in races like the Tours of California, Utah and Colorado – ed]. Let's hope it works."
The addition of Murphy, Jacques-Maynes, and Bissell teammate Paul Mach should, hopes Thompson, turn what was a criterium team into one that will be competitive in the overall standings of the North American stage races.
"We are and always have been a top-tier criterium team, winning major criteriums both during our amateur days and in our current UCI format,” Thompson explained. “We found ourselves as a true GC contender this year and now aim to solidify our role as such and assure we go to all of the major US races, but the Amgen Tour of California above any other is our goal.
“We believe with the large group of California resident GC men [Nate English, Jaques-Maynes, Mach, and Roman Kilun – ed], our ProTour talent [Murphy] and list of proven national winners, that we deserve a spot in these events, as we know we can contend against the best in the world,” he continued. “We are hoping we are fortunate enough to get the invitations to do so for our sponsors and our riders alike, and get the chance to prove we have yet again taken our team up a notch.”
Kenda-5 Hour Energy p/b Gear Grinder 2012 roster
Returning members:
Bobby Sweeting, Chad Hartley, Gregg Brandt, Isaac Howe, Jim Stemper, Luca Damiani, Patrick Lemieux, Phil Gaimon, Roman Kilun, Shawn Milne.
New members:
Andy Jaques-Maynes (Bissell), Curtis Winsor (Neo-Pro), John Murphy (BMC), Max Korus (Neo-Pro), Nate English (Neo-Pro), Paul Mach (Bissell), Nick Housley (Neo-Pro).