Team Jamis put on dominant show during the opening stage of the Redlands Bicycle Classic Wednesday when Ruben Companioni soloed to the stage win and his teammate Sebastian Haedo won the field sprint for second. Holowesko-Citadel's Travis McCabe was third ahead of Jelly Belly-Maxxis rider Jacob Rathe.
Companioni broke away with three other riders very early in the 20-lap race on a 4.5km suburban circuit, then dropped his companions with five laps to go and held off the nearly 200-rider men's field to take the win.
"I saw the bunch was getting closer and the other guys in the break were starting to get tired," Companioni said of his decision to go it alone. "I calculated the distance to the finish and I was confident I could hold that speed by myself for those five laps."
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Companioni went into the final five laps with a lead of more than two minutes, and despite chases from Holowesko-Citadel, Rally Cycling and Jelly Belly-Maxxis in succession, he was able to hold off the field with just a handful of seconds to spare. The win is the third for Companioni this season after he won two criteriums last month in Florida, but he said Wednesday's victory was his biggest so far.
"I won a stage in the Vuelta a Costa Rica a couple of years ago, and I won a Pan American championship on the track a few years ago, and I've won criteriums at the national level, but definitely this is the best win I've had in the US," he said.
Lupus Racing's Thomas Vaubourzeix, Arapahoe Resources' Julio Padilla and Gateway Harley Davidson's Dennis Ramirez initially joined Companioni in a breakaway that got away just three laps into the 20-lap race. When Companioni attacked the group to collect the KOM points with 12 laps to go, Ramirez couldn't hold the pace, and the move was down to three riders.
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