Will Routley Third in Merco Foothills Road Race

Will Routley, 26, racing for Team Jelly Belly presented by Kenda, placed 3rd in the Merco Foothills Road Race this past weekend. At 195 kilometers, this race is long for an early season race and as expected, the field whittled down fairly quickly.

About the race, Routley says, “There was a good turnout of pro teams, and I was racing solo, so it made things a little more difficult. The break went after about 1.5 hrs of aggressive racing, and I had initially missed it, so had to do a last minute hail mary with two other guys and we bridged across. We just rolled the breakaway, it was questionable for a little while as our gap wet from 2:30 minutes to about 1:10 at one point, but we stayed away and it just turned to the typical mayhem of attacking each other in the last 25 kilometers. Eventually we hit the final kilometer and in hindsight I started my sprint too far back, but still had some left in the tank to get on the podium.
It feels good to test out the legs at the season opener, and I know the winter training has gone well.”

Routley of British Colombia, is based out of Santa Cruz, California for the next few months. His next race is the Redlands Classic (March 25 – 28) where he will be joined by his Team Jelly Belly presented by Kenda teammates. After this race, he’ll be racing in Tour of Thailand, all with a focus on a good build up to the Tour of California (May 16 – 23).