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.”

Health Net’s John Murphy joined Jittery Joe's Ryan Sullivan for the ride.

Photo: JoE Silva

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. Sullivan, who is one of the many pro riders currently without a contract for the coming season is considering a return to his native Australia for the coming year.

“I’m free floating at the moment, but I’m talking to some teams back in Australia and try to sort something out there.” Sullivan said after riding alongside Health Net’s John Murphy for much of the morning. “A lot of teams in America are closing, but a lot of teams in Australia are starting. There seems to be a lot of money in cycling at Australia at the moment.”

Sullivan and the rest of the Jittery Joe’s team held out hope until the end of the year that the team would be going forward.

“We didn’t find out (for sure) until really late because they thought there would be sponsors for the new team. So we didn’t find out until the last race of the year. But it was my first year in America and it was good to come to a team that was a really friendly group of guys. And there seems to be a real sense of community in Athens. Over the summer I even did some of the group rides around here and it’s good that there are so many people to go out riding with. Even today, you see that so many people turned out for the ride.”

Murphy, who will continue to ride with the Momentum Sports Group that runs the Health Net team, concurred that Athens continues to be a good home base for him throughout the year.

“You can’t beat it here with the mountains only being an hour away and the weather this good almost all year round. It’s a nice little bike rider hideaway and we need one of the pro teams like Jittery to stick so that we can keep guys coming in and out of Athens.”

Bob Googe (l), manager and CEO of Jittery Joe’s Coffee and Habitat for Humanity Director Spencer Frye.

Photo: JoE Silva

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.

Grajales now rides for the Rock Racing squad but still trains in the area during the road season. In 2007, Neil Shirley once again put the team in the spotlight by taking third place at the USPRO Road Championships in Greenville.

While Sullivan and the rest of the team’s riders hunt deals for 2009, Micah Rice is still unsure who will become part of the amateur organization next year.

“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.”