Christian Vande Velde waves to the crowd after being awarded the traditional yellow jersey Sunday after winning the Tour of Missouri cycling race.

ST. LOUIS — Watsonville resident Ben Jacques-Maynes ended his 2008 cycling season on something of a down note Sunday, as his Bissell Pro Cycling Team finished in sixth place overall in the Tour of Missouri.

“Our team had some bad luck today,” Jacques-Maynes said. “But that’s part of racing, I guess. It’s kind of how the whole tour has gone.”

Jacques-Maynes, who took 17th place in Wednesday’s time trial — his specialty — was not able to finish Sunday’s final stage.

“We would get in a good position,” he said, “and then, I don’t want to say it was bad luck, but … it’s been pretty frustrating all week. We’re just doing the best we can, and we try to work our hardest for the end results.”

Christian Vande Velde won the overall race, finishing with the main pack in the rain-shortened final stage.

Bissell Pro Cycling ends the year as the No. 3-ranked team in the country. Jacques-Maynes, personally, ended the year as the No. 3 rider according to USA Cyling.

Jacques-Maynes was making his second race start this week since breaking his clavicle two months earlier. His next race won’t be until February, so he now has some free time to get healthy.

“I’m going to take a little vacation with the family, work in my garden, go mountain biking,” he said. “Everything I’ve been avoiding the last nine months — the fun stuff in life. Then I’ll start road-training in October, and start the process all over again.”

Jacques-Maynes said that his contract with Bissell extends through 2009, so he’ll be with the team for next Spring’s Tour of California, which will make a stop in Santa Cruz. Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has already announced that he’s planning to make a return to competitive cycling, and may compete in the Tour of California.

“There’s a lot of new information coming out about (the Tour of California) that’s going to blow people’s minds,” Jacques-Maynes said. “So I’m very excited about that.”

The AP contributed to this report.



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(Published on Sept. 15, 2008)

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