Team Hotel San Jose is a new kind of racing team and sports club, led by athletes who are dedicated to serving the community by working with disadvantaged and at-risk youth, developing the skills of beginning and intermediate cyclists, and cultivating the most incredible regional racing team you’ve ever seen. The core team members are a motivated group of professional and ex-professional cyclists, cycling enthusiasts, and triathletes, who ride with respect for all, regardless of experience. We welcome road cyclists and mountain bikers, runners and multi-sport athletes, men and women, and girls and boys.

ELITE CYCLING TEAM
In 2004, the Redbud Sports-managed elite cycling team, Team Hotel San Jose, entered the highly-competitive Texas and southwest regional racing scene with the goal of producing high profile results in regional, statewide and national races. Led by seasoned Cat 1 riders Barry Lee, Will Ross, Robbie Robinette and 10X Texas State MTB Champion Jason Sager, Team Hotel San Jose quickly became a powerful presence in a variety of cycling disciplines including road, track, cyclocross, and mountain bike racing. The season was highlighted by over 10 road victories, including the Texas King of the Crit Series, an 11th Texas State MTB Championship for Jason Sager and Sager’s second place finish to US cycling legend Jonas Carney at the AMLI Downtown Criterium in Austin.

After a solid start in 2004, 2005 proved to be the break-out year for Team Hotel San Jose’s elite squad. Lee, Ross, Robinette and Sager were joined by 2004 USPRO Road Race Champion and former Lance Armstrong teammate, Chann McRae, and US Continental Professionals Dave Wenger and Andrew Willis. McRae left the squad a few races into the season to join a US Continental team but not before giving the team a thrilling second place finish at the Texas Pace Bend Road Race behind then relatively unknown and future USPRO Crit Champion, Brad Huff. Dave Wenger dominated by winning the 2005 Texas State Road Race Championship, the 2005 Texas State Criterium Championship and 2005 TXBRA Pro/1/2 Individual Points Championship. The team finished a close second to a talented Mercy Cycling Team in the 2005 TXBRA Pro/1/2 Team Points Championship. Other race highlights include a breakaway win by Sager over Brad Huff and Sol Frost at the AMLI/SBC Austin Downtown Crit and a US Master’s National Championship Road Race win in Park City, Utah, by Robbie Robinette.

In 2006, Columbian professional Carlos Vargas and elite rider Phil Wikoff joined Lee, Ross, Wenger, Willis, and Robinette to form an almost unbeatable team in Texas. Wikoff and Wenger finished first and second, respectively, in the 2006 TXBRA Pro/1/2 In¬dividual Points Championship and the team finished first in the 2006 TXBRA Pro/1/2 Team Points Championship by nearly 800 points. Highlights include a 1-2 finish (Vargas and Wenger) at the AMLI Austin Twilight Criterium, Robbie Robinette’s dominating win at the Texas State Road Race Championship, a Team Time Trial Championship win for Will Ross, and a second place finish for Carlos Vargas at the Texas State Crit Championship. Also in 2006, Team Hotel San Jose began mentoring promising young racers Tyler Jewell and Tristan Uhl, who earned a spot on the US team at the World MTB Championships in New Zealand.

For the 2007 season, Team Hotel San Jose fielded another strong team of experienced racers with Vargas, Willis, Lee, Ross, and up-and-comers Steven Wheeler and Bryan Fawley. The team also increased its empha¬sis on developing young riders by adding 18 year old US National Team member Andrew Dalheim and 17 year old Junior Cross National Champion Joseph Tokarski to race alongside returning young riders, Tyler Jewell and Tristan Uhl. The 2007 team finished the season with four of the top ten in the 2007 TXBRA Pro/1/2 Individual Points Championship including Car¬los Vargas in first and young guns Jewell and Dalheim in fourth and sixth, respectively. The team won the 2007 TXBRA Pro/1/2 Team Points Cham¬pionship by 714 points. Race highlights include wins by youngster An¬drew Dahlheim at the Texas State Road Race Championship, the Fort Davis Hammerfest and Stage 4 of the Joe Martin Stage Race and a 2nd place finish by youngster Tyler Jewell at the Texas State Crit Championship. In an effort to be more competitive in the elite racing scene outside the State of Texas, Team Hotel San Jose sent a strong team to Superweek International in Milwaukee where Columbian strongman Carlos Vargas wore the leader’s jersey for several days and finished fifth overall.

In 2008, Team Hotel San Jose combined forces with Geoff Godsey’s Dallas-based Texas Tough to bring together a whose-who of Texas racing. Return¬ing Team Hotel San Jose members Lee, Ross, Vargas, Jewell, Dalheim, Faw¬ley, and Uhl were joined by veteran Dan Opdyke, former pro Brian Sheedy and Dallas-based hitters Chopper Kincaid, Nick Kiernan and Brett Crosby. Like 2007, the team’s mission was to be competitive in Texas, mentor the young guns and continue efforts to race more frequently and competitively at the national level. The team started the eason on the right track with a thrilling win at the Arizona Valley of the Sun Stage Race when youngster Tristan Uhl pipped Rock Racing’s wiley veteran David Clinger at the line in the road race. At home in Texas, Team Hotel San Jose continued to notch victories and compete for championships (for the second year in a row Tyler Jewell raced to a second place finish at the Texas State Crit Championship) but was edged out by 32 points in the 2008 TXBRA Pro/1/2 Team Points Championship by a talented Super Squadra team led by former Team Hotel San Jose riders Dave Wenger, Phil Wikoff and Steven Wheeler. On the national front, the team notched podiums at the Tour of Winghaven (2nd Pro), Gateway Cup (2nd Pro GC), Tour of Elk Grove (2nd Cat 1), Joe Martin Stage Race (1st Cat RR & GC), and Tour of Kansas City (3rd Pro GC) and Carlos Vargas again proved his status as a national caliber sprinter by finishing on the podium in 3rd place overall at Superweek International.

While 2005 was a breakout season for Team Hotel San Jose in the State of Texas, 2009 was the team’s breakout season on the national scene. Amicably parting ways with the Texas Tough group, and building on the previous years’ successes, the team joined stalwarts Lee and Vargas with Texan Ronnie Strange and three former Toyota-United professionals: 2005 US Pro Road Race Champion Chris Wherry, New Zealand Olympian Heath Blackgrove, and Tasmanian strongman Sean Sullivan. Wherry notched wins at the Iron Horse Crit and the Durango Crit, Sullivan rebounded from off-season knee surgery and a broken shoul¬der mid-season to notch wins at the Tour of Lawrence, the Colorado State Crit Championships and the Tour of Austin, Blackgrove won all over Texas, Mississippi and Kansas, and Vargas won the 2009 Texas State Crit Championship. Team Hotel San Jose put its stamp on the national racing scene with solid performances at USA Crits Speedweek and Superweek International. Black¬grove started the team’s stellar Speedweek with a breakaway win over a stacked domestic pro field at the Athens Twilight Crit. Vargas, who finished a respectable 12th in Athens, proceeded to reel off 5 top 10 finishes in the 6 remaining Speedweek races (including a 2nd at Waterboro and a 3rd at Dilworth) to finish 3rd in the Speedweek Overall. Team Hotel San Jose roared to a 4th place finish in the Speedweek Team Overall ahead of domestic pro teams Kelley Benefits and OUCH, among others. At Su¬perweek, the team objective was to win one or more of the 17 races (as opposed to chasing the overall) and, while a win proved elusive, three different riders (Blackgrove, Vargas and Sullivan) raced to 2nd place finishes, three different riders (Blackgrove, Sullivan and Strange) raced to 3rd place finishes, and the team had a total of 12 top ten finishes and 20 top twenty finishes. Amazingly, by mid-September, the team notched 50 wins.
TEAM HOTEL SAN JOSE CLUB

Since 2004, Redbud Sports has managed the Team Hotel San Jose Cycling and Multi-Sport Club which boasts over 120 mem¬bers and friends who train and compete in local, regional and national cycling, running and multi-sport events and participate in fun runs and bike tour events throughout Texas, Colorado and the rest of the United States. The Club has fielded top men’s and women’s teams from Category 5 beginners to seasoned elite Cat 1 and former professionals. More experienced racers are encouraged to mentor and coach less experienced riders and racers.
The Club’s members are extremely competitive in amateur road, cyclocross and MTB races. In 2005, for example, with the help of seasoned pro Jen McRae and future pro Allyson Brandt, the Team Hotel San Jose women’s team won the TXBRA Pro/1/2 Team Points Championship and dominant Cat 4 racer, Desiree Ficker (the 2006 runner-up at Iron Man Hawaii), finished the season ranked 4th in the world in Olympic distance triathlon. Team Hotel San Jose junior triathletes and competitive Cat 4 women, Amanda Russell and Avery Visser won the Junior Women’s National Triathlon Championships in 2006 and 2007, respectively, and junior road racer Joseph Tokarski won the US Junior Nationals Cyclocross B Championship in 2007. Also in 2007, Redbud Sports sponsored and managed a team of elite junior racers that traveled to the U.S. Junior National Road Championships in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania and the Tour de L’Abitibi in Val’dor, Quebec. Celebrating its 39th edition in 2007, the Tour de L’Abitibi, is often referred to as the Tour de France for juniors. It is the longest Stage race in the International Junior World Cup consisting of 9 stages contested over 7 days. The Team Hotel San Jose Club continues to be an integral part of our organization and has recently added several members in Boulder and Denver, Colorado. It is noteworthy that over the years several members of the Team Hotel San Jose Elite Team (Tyler Jewell, Nathan Winkleman, Tristan Uhl, Joseph Tokarski and others) progressed through the amateur ranks as members of the Club.

EVENTS
Since 2003, Redbud Sports has managed and produced the largest annual road race in the State of Texas. A one-day event, the Pace Bend Road Race attracts approximately 800 racers to the Austin area including first time juniors, regional and national champions, domestic pros and even former Tour de France racers. Redbud Sports will promote the Pace Bend Road Race for the 8th consecutive year in February, 2010. Past winners and participants include Brad Huff, Chann McRae, Brice Jones, Nathan Rogut, Brian Jensen, and Chris Wherry.

From 2004 – 2008, Redbud Sports managed and produced the annual Austin Downtown Criterium, a full day of racing in downtown Austin culminating with an epic pro/1/2 race through the bar and restaurant-lined streets of the 2nd Street District. In 2007, the Austin Downtown Criterium, sponsored by AT&T, joined the 9-event USA Crits Series and in 2008 the event earned a spot on the USA Cycling National Race Calendar. Past winners include Jonas Carney, Jason Sager, Carlos Vargas, Frank Travieso, and Alejandro Borrajo. Notable past participants include Tyler Hamilton, Ivan (the “Cuban Missile”) Dominguez, Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic, Frank Pipp, Rasahn Bahati, Fast Freddie Rodriquez and Kristian House. While the 2009 and 2010 versions of the Austin Downtown Crit were cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship funding, Redbud Sports intends to promote the race in 2011.

From 2005 – 2008, Redbud Sports produced a weekly criterium race in Austin during daylight savings time attracting as many as 100 racers each week. The races were developmental in nature, designed to encourage juniors, first -timers and racers progressing up through the ranks. In 2007, Redbud Sports moved the weekly Crit Series to a local, European-style auto racing track (the Driveway Austin) and since that time the crits have come to enjoy a national reputation as one of the best weekly crit series in the U.S.