Jittery Joes Cylcing to fall back to amateur status

... but their commitment to cycling remains.  They will be culling together an amateur team to compete on a regional basis.

I know that many of our regulars here frequent the regular rides from a Jittery Joes location and therefore might be interested in the developments. 

Not sure which of the cash sponsors dropped out but suspect we will see more impact of the economy on cycling in the near future.

Jittery Joe’s drops Pro status
VeloNews (Oct 26, 2008)

The Athens, Georgia, based Jittery Joe’s professional cycling team will be moving to amateur status for the 2009 season according to the team’s management company Spin Sports.

Unable to secure a secondary sponsor for the coming year, the team will now focus on racing regionally while rebuilding its program for 2010.

“Jittery Joe’s Coffee is going to support the team no matter what.” said General Manager Micah Rice. “But we lost a number of cash sponsors and decided not to try and scrape something together (for next year). No one would be happy with that. So instead of stretching things out too thin, we’re not going to pushing and do it right (at the amateur level).”

The team is quite popular on its home turf and on Saturday, October 25th, more than 150 local supporters turned out for the inaugural Jittery Joe’s Fall Classic Century. The charity ride featured 31-mile and 62-mile metric century routes to benefit the Athens Area Habitat for Humanity.

“The hardest thing was actually finding a weekend in Athens that wasn’t a big football weekend where we could do something.” Bob Googe, manager and CEO of Jittery Joe’s Coffee said following the event.

Googe said he was disappointed that the team would be dropping out of the professional circuit, but maintained that the company would continue to do its part to support the squad until the economy improved.

“I hate to see it happen, but on the other hand since as a firm we’re trying to expand in the southeast, in some ways we can have a stronger presence as an amateur team because we’ll be at more things in more concentrated ways. We’re even talking about maybe sponsoring a circuit of races, and maybe call it the Jittery Joe’s circuit. We love our association with cycling and that is not gonna go away. Because if the economy gets better and Jittery Joe’s grows, we’ll be back on the pro circuit.”

Members of the Jittery Joe’s 2008 roster, including Tim Henry and Ryan Sullivan, were on hand to ride with fans and local cycling enthusiasts. 

... 

Over 180 people registered to take part in the first Jittery Joe’s Fall Classic Century and Athens Area Habitat for Humanity Director Spencer Frye was surprised at the first year turn out.

“I didn’t know what to expect. We run a lot of 5Ks and get about 200-300 per, so to get almost 200 people at a first year bike event is just incredible.”

Always a fixture at the Tour de Georgia, Trent Lowe brought the team the Best Young Rider’s jersey at that event in 2005. The team also got its fair share of buzz in 2004 when Jittery Joe’s ace Colombian climber Cesar Grajales beat Lance Armstrong up the climb of Brasstown Bald to take the victory during stage 6.

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“Pro contracts have to be in by the 5th of November, so a lot of guys are still hoping to get on a team before then.” Rice said. “After that deadline passes, I’ll have a better idea who’ll be available to ride with us. Going forward, I’m going to continue to work during 2009 to get the sponsorships we need to hopefully become a pro team again in 2010.”

Full article: http://www.velonews.com/article/84634/jittery-joe-s-drops-pro-status