The domestic Priority Health team enjoyed a great first day in its first Tour of California, with Ben Jacques-Maynes taking third in the prologue and Brian Sheedy winning the race’s first King of the Mountains jersey.

"This whole team is really coming together well," said Jacques-Maynes before Sunday’s prologue. "I think we’re really going to show ourselves. People may not have heard of us before now; we’ve been an upstart team. But people are really going to know us by the end of this tour."

Racing the Tour of California last year under Sierra Nevada’s banner, Jacques-Maynes muscled his way into breaks and in front of the television cameras.

"I’ll be doing the same this year, and I’ve got a whole team that will be doing the same," Jacques-Maynes said. "On top of that we’ve also got a really good sprinter in Emile Abraham. He’s been really impressive and he showed up prepared and he’s here to race. You’ll be seeing us at the stage finishes as well."

Before the prologue, Jacques-Maynes said he planned to tackle the prologue on his Pinarello Montello time-trial bike as two races: one flat one, and then one hill climb.

Sheedy

Photo: courtesy Team Priority Health

"My cyclo-cross this fall really helped with micro-recovery," he said. "I’ll sit up for a just few seconds at the start of the second race. That’s how I’m going to treat it, as two races."

With a time that bested the likes of world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara (CSC), it evidently proved a successful strategy.

Sheedy took the KOM, which was based on the last portion of the prologue. While many riders used the smaller chainring on the hill, Sheedy murdered himself with a 53/19 up the steepest part.

"My legs are searing in pain," Sheedy said immediately after the prologue. "And it’s not going away. I keep riding in circles trying to flush out my legs, but there is so much lactic acid it feels like it’s burning my bones. It’s not even muscle any more."

Team manager Mark Olson said the team came to the race to prove itself.

"Overall, the main goal here is to be aggressive," Olson said. "We want to be in the breaks. We want to make our mark on the race. We are definitely one of the smallest if not the smallest team in the race. But we don’t feel talent-wise that we are. We want to prove that we’re supposed to be here."