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San Jose, Calif. (February 21, 2006)
- As soon as the Amgen Tour of California announced that its second stage
would finish in his hometown of San Jose, Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada's
Ben Jacques-Maynes began preparations to leave his mark on the race.
And when the dust settled after 95 miles of racing over some of the most
difficult terrain in the Bay Area, Jacques-Maynes could be proud of his
aggressive ride in a 60-mile breakaway with TIAA-CREF's Michael Creed
and Credit Agricole's Mads Kaggestad.
Jacques-Maynes related after the stage, ÒI went away on the KOM over Happy
Valley Road and flew down the hill to bridge across to [Creed and Kaggestad].
We started cooperating immediately and the gap went wide open. The first
time check we heard was 1'30" and then next was four minutes! We
were pretty surprised that the gap went up to six minutes, but I wasn't
surprised by how quickly it came down - I know how hard the ProTour teams
can chase.Ó
Indeed, the Gerolsteiner-led field swept up the three leaders on the lower
slopes of the Category 1 climb of Sierra Road, around 15 miles from the
finish.
Said Racing Manager Jonas Carney, ÒThe plan was to get Ben in an early
break so he could take advantage of his knowledge of the local roads and
get to the top of the climb before the heavy hitters. He didn't quite
make it and they caught him pretty early on the climb, but the plan was
executed perfectly. I'm happy with how Ben rode but against this level
of competition you have to try everything. Most of the time you'll come
up empty-handed but you have to keep trying and that's what we're doing.Ó
In the end, Jacques-Maynes finished 31st on the day, rolling into San
Jose in the second group, 3'20Ó behind stage winner and overall leader
George Hincapie (Discovery Channel). The Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada
rider now sits in 23rd overall going into tomorrow morning's time trial
in San Jose.
Full results are available at amgentourofcalifornia.com
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