Jittery Joe's is Heading to Nature Valley!!

Jittery Joe’s pb Kudzu.com earns top invitations.

The young Jittery Joe’s U25 pb Kudzu.com team earned its first national recognition this week as they were awarded a prestigious invitation to the Nature Valley Grand Prix(NVGP) Stage Race in Minnesota, June 10th-14th. The NVGP is a 5 day, 6 stage race that is the highest ranked stage race on the U.S. National Racing calendar and will feature only the top international professional and amateur teams. Team director Larson stated, “This event is great because it gives us an opportunity to show that we have some of the top young talent in the country that is capable of competing alongside the top professional riders. We will surely be keying on the best young rider prize, as well as any top stage results we can manage.” This invite comes on the heels of the team’s great performances in the USACrits Speedweek, and the Collegiate National Cycling Championships in Ft. Collins, CO. Additionally, the team earned and invitation and will compete in the amateur Tour of Ohio, June 16th-21st.

Jittery Joe’s was also extended an invitation to compete in the Women’s Liberty Classic in Philadelphia, PA on June 7th. Riding with the one woman wrecking crew that is Rebecca Larson will be top drawer guest riders, Laura Van Gilder and Kristin Lasasso. Team director Dan Larson comments, “We are looking forward to still making a big impression for Jittery Joe’s at the country’s premier one day road race. It will be great to have some serious firepower to work with thanks to the addition of Laura and Lasasso.” Other guest riders for Jittery Joe’s at the event will be Trish Cohen from Tampa, FL; multi-time masters national champion Tracy Tolson; and womens Giro d’Italia veteran Angela Connaughton of Gainesville, FL.

Collegiate Nationals Recap 5/10

Jittery Joe’s riders top college championships.

Joey Rosskopf and Thomas Brown took their show on the road once again and bested the country’s top collegiate cyclists. Earning a total of 5 medals and a national championship jersey at the championships, the pair represented their universities in the Division II National Road Championships Road Race and Criterium. Joey earned 2nd in the Road Race and 5th in the Criterium, while Thomas earned a hard fought 10th in the Road Race, and won the field sprint in the Criterium for another podium position (3rd). After tallying all of the individual race scores, Rosskopf cleared up his near miss in the Road Race with a clear national championship title in the overall competition, and Thomas’ consistency earned him an impressive 4th place overall.

SpeedWeek Report by Joey

On April 25th the USA Crits Speedweek kicked off with the Athens Twilight Criterium, and for the next nine days the team competed in seven criteriums throughout the Southeast. Speedweek consists of numerous “big money” criteriums, each in a different city, on a variety of courses ranging from your basic four-corner, flat crit to more complicated circuits including hills, tight corners, and some REALLY dark sections of road. Besides competing with the few pro riders that show up to some local races from time to time, this series was the team’s first real taste of the professional peloton this season. After a week in hotel rooms and driving between Georgia, and North & South Carolina, the team ended the week with some very impressive results.

Rebecca rode with incredible consistency, only once placing out of the top seven. Her results for the week included three 5th place finishes and 4th overall. Aside from the results which speak for themselves, the really impressive part is that Rebecca managed to notch such high results all by herself. She was without teammates but still held her own against massive leadouts from Colavita, Team Type One, and Team Tibco among other teams that brought full squads.

The boys didn’t shape up too bad either. Thomas and Joey competed in every race, Jafer and Dan made it to five, only skipping Tuesday and Thursday, and Anthony made his return to racing on Friday, after a couple weeks off with a broken wrist. Between the five who raced, by the end of the week the team had racked up nine top 20’s, three of which were top 10 finishes. For the efforts all week long, Thomas ended up a strong 17th overall by the end, and Joey took 7th overall and won the Best Young Rider (U25) competition.

While Anthony’s return to racing was definitely something to celebrate, it didn’t last long. The poor guy fell victim to one of the numerous crashes that happened in the final event on Sunday, May 3rd in Sandy Springs, GA and broke his collar bone. The team is devastated to have yet another injury keeping us from all being able to race together. He is scheduled for surgery Thursday, May 14; updates will follow.

USA Crits Speed Week Recap

The Jittery Joe’s crew had a mix of positive and negative outcomes after more than a week of competition across SC, NC and Georgia. Ultimately, the positives outweighed the negatives, as the team emerged with the best young rider prize, 7th and 17th overall, as well as emerging as the 8th best team overall. This was the team’s first big challenge against national level competition, so the going was tough. Joey opened the team accounts on Friday night (4/24) while competing in the Grid Qualifications for the Twilight Criterium. Qualifying for the finals against all of the top professionals, he rose to the challenge for the final round, charging back from an early deficit to take 2nd place behind Team Ouch’s John Murphy. The ensuing days featured a blur of laps and sprints with the clear highlights being Joey’s 10th place finish in Beaufort, SC; 8th place in Spartanburg, SC; and a gritty 4th place in a rainy showdown in Dilworth, NC. . Thomas proved impressively consistent and tough as well, finishing in the top 20 of nearly all of the events. Jafer earned a place in Dilworth and provided steadfast support. Anthony made his first return back to competition with his freshly healing broken wrist. Unfortunatley, Anthony’s return was short lived, as in the closing laps of the final race, he fell victim to a high speed crash that launched him through the air to land with a shattered collarbone. Additionally, Mike Niemi, who had been absent from competition for illness had just begun to train again when he suffered a broken collarbone during the week totaling the team’s third collarbone for the season!

Back on the positive side, Rebecca continued her solo crusade on behalf of the Jittery Joe’s crew in the women’s events. She singlehandedly faced off against several full women’s teams, and after finishing top 10 in all of the events, including a win in the Dilworth Criterium, earned 4th place in the series overall. Thanks to her consistent performances in the events, Rebecca moved up into the top spot of the USACycling criterium rankings.