Following the Pool Gel Redlands Classic, which saw the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis rider Chris Wherry take the overall win, the team is making final preparations for perhaps the hardest 10-day stretch of racing on their calendar this year.
The stretch starts on the west coast with the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California, which begins this Thursday, April 14, and continues until Saturday. The three-day race includes a short prologue, followed by a difficult circuit race on the Laguna Seca race course, and finishes with a hill road race. The team will be lead by Mike Jones, who finished second overall in last year's Sea Otter, as well as Wherry.
"Redlands was a hard race and I came out of it pretty tired," said Wherry. "And with doing both Sea Otter and Georgia, I'll be looking to guys like Jones and Doug Ollerenshaw to maybe take over some leadership duties at Sea Otter." Wherry will be joined by Mike Sayers and Gord Fraser in doing "double duty".
Directeur-sportif Jeff Corbett admits the team's performance at last year's Dodge Tour de Georgia, where they won three stages as well as the sprinters and mountains jerseys will be hard to match. "If we can have similar success again this year, we'd be very happy," he said, "but the competition is even stronger this year."
Sea Otter: Gord Fraser, Mike Jones, Jason Lokkesmoe, Doug Ollerenshaw, Mike Sayers, Chris Wherry
Tour de Georgia: Ivan Dominguez, Justin England, Gord Fraser, Greg Henderson, John Lieswyn, Scott Moninger, Mike Sayers, Chris Wherry
