We first saw Anna Lang race in the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix last summer. She placed fifth behind a talented sprinting field. A few days later we caught up with Lang at the Women’s Road Criterium race during the Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic where she crushed the field in a hard sprint finish. Lang was a solo rider battling multi-rider teams from Webcor Builders, PROMAN/Paradigm and Cheerwine, which made her victory even more impressive. Although fairly new to the professional women’s road schedule, Anna Lang has impressed many.

Lang began her cycling career as an undergrad at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. “I was always athletic. It took collegiate racing to get into riding,” Lang stated. “My sophomore year, I wanted the discipline and the team atmosphere, I heard about the triathlon club. They had a coach and regular practice times. I did triathlons and it was just okay. It was pretty straight forward and actually kind of boring. Through the triathlon club I heard about the cycling club. They were just bad asses…very good. As a club team I was simply able to join. I did a mountain bike championship in San Diego. I did the B category downhill and won. I got down and thought, ‘This is so cool!’ I fell in love with it. A couple of months later the road season started. I got a road bike. I remember telling my friend that for the first time I can see doing this until the day I die.There was a love there immediately.”

After graduation, Anna began a new job and didn’t train or race very much. “I hadn’t really jumped the ranks from collegiate and was planning on driving around to race and then September 11th happened and I ended up staying home and got a great engineering job.”

She worked for two years as a structural design consultant at a leading engineering firm designing multi-million-dollar homes in the San Francisco Bay area. However, a trip to Mexico motivated her to go back to school to get an advanced degree. “On the engineering side…it wasn’t really fulfilling,” Lang commented. “I wanted to make a bigger contribution.”

“When I made the decision to go to grad school I found out that they had a track. People had always told me that I would be good at track. I tried it. First year of grad school was ridiculous so I rode twice a month on my road bike and did a handful of collegiate races. The track team was pretty solid. I finished school on June 16^th and I was at the track the next day. I trained and I loved it. At first I was training for pursuit. I was really good at time trialing at Cal Poly. Though I liked training for the pursuit my 500m time was dropping. I switched coach and have been training for sprints for three years now. He put me in the crit scene last year. He told me that he wanted to make me a better athlete first and then to make me a better racer. He wanted me to enter every and all races to get the experience. That’s why we did crits last year. It was a secondary thing to my track. It was done only to supplement my track racing. At my first crit….I got out there and thought I am either not going to finish the race or I am going to win….there really was no in between. If I am able to get to the line I will out sprint everyone in the field. Sure enough I jumped and sprinted.”

Lang further commented about her coach. “I’m well aware of Mark’s (Whitehead) controversial reputation, but that is simply not the person I know and worked closely with for two years. He is a deeply dedicated, talented, and passionate coach and individual. I have the utmost respect for his coaching ability and for what he accomplished as a racer in the 70’s and 80’s. Frankly, I wouldn’t be where I am without him. Mark saw my ability to sprint and to ride crits, and he fostered those talents. I believe it takes a unique personality to coach female athletes, particularly at the elite level, and he possesses that. Mark simply knows what it takes to make someone the best possible racer. An athlete sacrifices so much to achieve results; they put their heart and soul into it. You must trust your coach in order to reach your god-determined potential; that’s a heavy burden! But I wouldn’t invest that trust with anyone else in the U.S.; he is the best.”

Lang has continued to combine her track racing passion with her new road career. “I have seen a huge improvement by combining the two. A lot of track sprinters do not like the speed of the peloton. I think because I started road racing in college, I knew how to ride crits plus I am getting the speed training from track. Combining the two has been awesome. My coach has even been considering the points race now too. The level of fitness that I had last year was the best I ever had. I was still able to maintain my sprint and my 200m time was dropping. It was not taking away from sprints. There is often a black and white training mentality. I am somewhere in the middle and my coach has done a fantastic job of identifying the talent I have and nourishing it. I am somewhere in the middle and really do not want to be pigeon holed. Road has taken more of a forefront now. I’ll race a handful of track races in the summer but I will be getting into my road schedule. I am still training on the track. Track remains an integral part of my road racing and my sprint.”

With her road and track successes in 2007, Lang decided to test the waters of possibly joining a professional women’s road team. “I did send my resume to a lot of teams. I knew what I wanted and I knew I did not want to be pigeon holed. I know I have to pay my dues and I know I have a lot to earn but I also know that I can win races. I wanted to be at a place where I could be myself and where I was wanted I was so enchanted with the idea of going pro. I just knew what I wanted…I knew what I could do…I knew what I could do alone out on the peloton and I knew I could do it again and better. So it was not like I had to be on a team in order to make it. I wasn’t sold on that idea. I also wanted to maintain school and my schedule. I wanted to be with a team that work with me and my schedule.”

With a suggestion by a colleague, Lang decided to contact Aaron’s Professional Women’s Cycling Team. “Carmen (D’Aluisio) called me back. She said she had been looking for ways to contact me. She had her eye on me. We had a long talk and what convinced me was that she would allow me to be who I am. She was looking for a true sprinter. When Laura Van Gilder or Tina Pic is in the race, the peloton immediately starts racing for second place. I don’t have that problem. I am going to jump in and attack. I just see them as another competitor that I want to beat. I am ready now. The engineering side of me looks at it and I have seen these girls, I’ve seen their 500 and 200 times and I am a lot faster. If I can get to the line, deductively I should be able to beat them….that’s what I saw in my head. Maybe that’s been my source of confidence.”

As for her goals for 2008, Lang stated, “Number one….I am new to the team dynamic. There is lot I have to learn. I want a better understanding of how I am going to fit in but I really want to win races. I don’t want to step on toes but I do want to win races. There is so much firepower on this team. I think there are a lot of different ways we’ll be able to win races. What ever group I am in…I want to win.”

However, Lang’s passion for track is never far behind. “I had some good success on the track last summer. I beat Jenny Reed a couple of times and showing some good strength and speed. I had bad luck at the Track Nationals. I crashed pretty bad on the keirin. It shook me up. I went down hard and hit my head. I got back up and did the scratch race…which is the best thing I could have done. 2012 track in the Olympics is definitely something I am targeting.”

All photos copyright Stephanie Gutowski

On the eve of the start of the Classics season, 34 year old Roger Hammond is embarking on his eight season as a professional cyclist. He started his career winning a Junior World Title in cross racing, and since then, he has been two-time British Road Champion, three-time British cyclocross champion (2004, 2006 and 2008) and has proven to be a great classics rider with a second place at Ghent-Wevelgem in 2007, and a third place in Paris-Roubaix in 2004.

After four year with Continental teams, in 2005 Hammond rode for the Discovery Channel team in crashed-marred two years. He then moved onto the T-Mobile team in 2007,and Hammond stayed with the team when it established its new direction of clean and fair sport and new name Team High Road for the 2008 season.

Hammond loves the Classics and still dreams of conquering the Hell of the North, Paris-Roubaix. We caught up with a relaxed Hammond on a sunny day during the Team High Road training camp in San Luis Obispo, California.

Hammond enjoys the friendly mood of the team and considers that the goal of riding clean helps in bringing people together. “We have this strong common goal and it brings the riders closer together, take away winning bike races because everybody has got different motivations, different ambitions in winning bike races so it’s not a common goal but the anti-doping is a very strong common goal.”

As a veteran, Hammond quipped that his role was to “keep the young lads in line.” Team owner Bob Stapleton laughingly agreed that Hammond “wasn’t far off” with his take of his role on the team where 20 men and women are under the age of 25.

For Hammond, cycling is like Formula 1, where very rarely does a new driver come in to win a race, a rider needs to learn a lot, and that winning is not just about being strong. He feels that he can show a lot to the young riders on the team.

“I’ve got 14 years of mistakes that I’ve made and hopefully if I can save the young riders from making my mistakes and reduces the number of mistakes that they’ll make in their careers and I think that’s very important, you need it in a team.”

He explained that it takes more than talent to win the big races. “I think you saw with our results last year in the big one day Classics, it was the older riders that were there, and it takes quite a good deal of experience and knowledge to ride those races.”

Experience counts and learning from racing in the Classics is very important. “Tour of Flanders you change directions five hundred million times in a race, so unless you’ve done it. It’s a great race to ride, it can be the greatest in the world and the most frustrating thing in life and Roubaix is the same.”

Saving energy is the way to win the Classics. “The first time I did Roubaix I wasted so much energy just fighting for the wrong section of cobbles, the first year, I was eighteenth but absolutely dead. the second year, I went I was third and it just shows you how much you can learn in one year, just by riding it once.”

“And then you gain that experience each year, more and more experience and you can refine your efforts and that is how you win Classics. It’s not be being ten times better than anybody else, it’s by saving energy and not wasting it.”

When asked about his favorite Classics, Hammond easily answered that it had to be Paris-Roubaix. “Right from the beginning to the end, I just have fun, I enjoy them.”

He doesn’t like the nasty weather that often occurs during the Belgian Classics, but uses it to his advantage. “I don’t think anybody likes it, it’s just some people go better in it. And when it’s nasty weather, I can eliminate about fifty percent of the peloton and that’s the way I look at it.”

Hammond is starting his season focusing on “the one day classics so I’m just saving for those races”, and is hoping that Team High Road gets an invitation to his favorite Paris-Roubaix.

He has not decided about the Olympic Games yet, as the circuit favors climbers. “So I’m not really sure how much emphasis I’ll put on it, well we’ll just have to see how it goes, it just depends how I’m climbing later on we’ll have a look.”

Roger Hammond and George Hincapie at the 2007 World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany

By Stephanie Gutowski

Chechu Rubiera has had quite an amazing career beginning in 1995 with Artiach. He had his first major win at the Giro d’Italia as a young Kelme rider in 1997. He turned down a Cofidis offer to ride for US Postal Services and Lance Armstrong in 2001. He rode with Armstrong in US Postal Services and Discovery Channel. Rubiera will now ride his final year with Astana. Rubiera has decided to retire at the end of this season. RoadBikeReview caught up with this incredible climber in Palo Alto.

I last saw you race, here in the States, at the San Francisco Grand Prix….
I love that race!! It’s a pity they do not do that race anymore. For me that race was the nicest race of the season. It was so wonderful. The course was fun, the nice weather, the beautiful city and the atmosphere was great. It was at the end of the season so there was no pressure. We all enjoyed that race.

How did the decision to go to Astana work out? Did you wait for Astana?
I did not wait. The fact is I did not have an offer. I had been in touch with Rock Racing and a few weeks later Johan called me. What I wanted to do was to race one more year and then stop. It’s good to stop when you want to stop.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast pro cycling team is starting its sophomore year with US Olympian and 25-time US national champion Jonas Carney at the helm. In the summer of 2007, the team became the only first year team in US cycling history to win the overall at the USPRO Criterium Championships at Downer’s Grove Illinois. The team finished the season strong by having riders on podiums throughout the last part of the season.

Redlands 2007

The 2008 roster sees five new athletes added to the team: Andrew Bajadali, winner of the 2007 Redlands Classic, Alex Candelario, winner of the Tour de Nez 2007, Brian Bucholz in his first year as a pro, and the fastest young riders on either side of the North American border: Ben King Junior National TT and road race champion and U23 Canadian Time Trial Champion David Veilleux. Returning for a second year with the squad are Jonny Sundt, Dan Bowman, Reid Mumford, Justin Spinelli, Nick Waite, Martin Gilbert and Keven Lacombe, both from Canada.

The team chose to have a low-key beginning of the season and postponed the full team training camp including the traditional official photo shoots so the Tour of California squad could focus on getting ready for the big race.

During their short training camp in Oxnard, California, Jonas Carney provided insight into his team before the start of the 2008 season.

Building a foundation and adding horsepower

The team had a late start in its first year, as they were not able to hire the riders until the end of October which made it challenging. But for Carney, “it was a good process because we were able to seek out some great talent that needed some opportunity.”

For the 2008 season, they moved quickly to recruit the riders; as early as June, Carney was having serious conversation with some of the riders that made the team, and developed a new philosophy for the direction of the team.

“We had an awesome group of guys last year and we kept the majority, kept I think 8 of the 11 riders from last year and we brought 5 new on. One thing is that we wanted a larger roster, 13 instead of 11 and then we changed the philosophy a little bit, as far as what we are trying to build.”

The first year was just about having a good year and Carney was focused on building a foundation. The goal is to build a backbone so the team can expand, and then based on the successes and shortcomings of the team, Carney came up with “the idea of the style of team that we wanted to build.”

“We are this year, focused more on power and speed. For the American style of racing, and the type of things that we succeeded last year, the things that we did the best is what we wanted to build on.”

The roster additions were strategic “as far as hiring riders that time trial very well but also race criterium very well and are able not only be contenders in a general classification of a race because they time trial well, but also powerful riders that can handle their bikes well in criteriums. We have three field sprinters, that was a major goal for us to be able to win lots of races this year in field sprints.”

The first season was a learning experience, Carney learned quite a bit about what makes the team tick. “We had great camaraderie and a really positive atmosphere on the team last year and I was really happy with the way that came together. That comes from all, it’s not just the riders, but it’s the staff and the sponsors as well, we have a great atmosphere, it feels like a family.”

With a limited budget, the only way for Carney to win races is to have the correct atmosphere and the riders willing to sacrifice for each other. That can be a difficult thing to create when a team doesn’t have a lot money to hire star riders, so “you have to find the right types of characters and we did a good job of hiring the riders last year.”

“I was an incredibly happy with all the guys and the teamwork was incredible and the atmosphere was great so that’s why we kept the majority of the team because we didn’t have to change much but it was just adding a little bit more horsepower. “

Unlike a lot of other teams, “we have a great group of sponsors, we actually have 5 sponsors that are from outside the cycling industry.” Having multiple sponsors provides the stability to look ahead a few years, “I see much more longevity with this program than others and personally I’m looking ahead maybe one or two years.”

Carney hopes that the team grows enough in the next 3 years, that roster of riders also grows and that the riders don’t outgrow the team because “having those kinds of talent they could easily, if we stay where we are, they could easily outgrow the team and would want to move on to something bigger and so we just want to get bigger and faster every year but not an incredible leap in one season.”

“I think we made a good step for 2008 and then again, we’ll try to make a big step for 2009 but not, we don’t want to overstep our bounds we want to take our time.”

Hiring North-American riders and the French-Canadian connection

Carney takes a lot of price in recruiting riders, and he doesn’t hire outside of North America, and so far has no plans top change that hiring practice.

“I get a lot of resumes from overseas and those resumes look really good and those riders don’t cost a lot of money but the fact is I don’t want to jeopardize what we are trying to build and so I’m pretty picky in who all I welcome into the team. It’s not just based on resumes, a lot of it has to do with personalities and having references for these guys.”

The Quebec connection really started when Carney was working for the Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada team, and got to know the Quebecois riders on the team Martin Gilbert and Dominique Perras.

Carney was “impressed with Martin’s talent and potential as a sprinter.” As a sprinter himself, he saw something in him and it worked out that they were able to bring the duo over, very late, in mid-November 2006, and that was the beginning of the connection.

Carney works on recruiting all season and seeks out certain riders. He tried to bring three-time Canadian U23 champion David Veilleux on the team last year, but Veilleux decided to stay with Jittery Joe’s. Keven Lacombe was also in Carney’s sights, but Lacombe took some time to recover from a broken femur and then joined the team in mid-season last year.

“For me, a big part of our team is the young riders and we have probably the strongest group of young riders of any team in America, our three youngest guys are probably three of the most talented people that you’ll ever see. “

Carney has found that most young American riders, between the ages of 18 to 20 years old, to either to the US National Team or they ride for Slipstream, which makes it “difficult to recruit the best of the best young American riders.”

For Canadians, it they are from British Columbia, they typically sign for the Symmetrics team, and Carney “just been lucky enough to come into contact with riders like David Veilleux and Martin Gilbert and Keven Lacombe, Mark Hinnen. We have some incredible talent from that area, and I think we have a good environment for those guys too.”

Carney likes to recruit young riders with the expectation that they’ll be around for a long time, rather than just buying “new talent every year, I want to bring it up through the ranks of our team and there’s no better way to do that than to just bring in the best young guys and provide them with a positive environment.”

Looking forwards to the 2008 season

With a well-rounded squad build around a sprinting core, the team is focusing its energies on the races that are important to the sponsors, such as Tour of California, Tour de Georgia , Philly Week, all the major events in North America.

The second focus for the team are the mid-Atlantic races, with the two biggest sponsors Kelly Benefit Strategies and Medifast based our of Baltimore, “anything in the mid-Atlantic region or even on the East Coast is going to be a priority for us.”

For Carney, the USA Pro Cycling Tour calendar is a good schedule for is because of the big, large number of races that are on the Atlantic, and will not be paying much attention to the National Racing Calendar (NRC) races.

Carney’s personal goal is “that I want to have a much better season that we had last year and there are a few races that we are going to target but the goal in general is to win a lot of races.”

Last season, the team raced two International UCI races, the FBD Insurance Ras in Ireland and the Vuelta a Chihuahua in Mexico. Carney is hoping to repeat the international experience this season, with the Tour of South Africa scheduled in March, and they are currently entertaining some invitations for other races but nothing has been decided yet.

“Because the NRC doesn’t mean much to us there are some fairly large gaps in the calendar where, for example, there are periods where there are no UCI races in America, I think we get more benefit doing international events because longer races, more stages and the experience of racing against different competition.”

Carney sees the international experience as a draw for the riders, as “the guys get pretty excited about racing internationally against some pretty big teams.”

Rather than flying all the way to the west coast to do an NRC race, transporting all the vehicles and spending an amount of money to do a race that doesn’t benefit some of his sponsors as much, Carney sees more benefit in doing international events because of the longer races, more stages and the experience of racing against different competition. “It’s a great experience for all the riders on the team to travel internationally, gain the experience of racing against different competition, sometimes more difficult competition, sometimes no.”

In Carney’s opinion, “the NRC calendar could use quite a bit of revamping but we’re lucky to have another calendar, the USA Cycling Pro Tour calendar is actually a great calendar and that’s what we are going to look at.”

With their sponsors based out of the Baltimore and Minneapolis areas, it is better for the team to stay on the east coast and concentrate on wining races in our sponsors’ market.

“The NRC calendar is extremely expensive to chase because the races are scattered all over the country and the schedule is not set up very well at all. If we had a larger budget, and bigger staff and more vehicles, it would be easier but the driving the trailer and the van back & forth across the country all throughout the year is taxing on the staff, it’s taxing on the budget.”

Tour of California

Carney picked the team early on, as he just didn’t feel it was appropriate to have the guys coming into camp and having to race each other for their spots so he did my best to pick the team based on the courses at the Tour of California.

The roster includes Andrew Bajadali, Alex Candelario, Keven Lacombe, Dan Bowman and Jonny Sundt plus three riders injured in 2007 and now racing stronger and faster: Reid Mumford, Justin Spinelli and Nick Waite.

“We have two field sprinters, Keven and Alex, everyone else is for the most part is the sturdiest, most experienced kind of stage racers.. the courses are so hard I had to go in that direction with it. Jonny is a warrior, he’s very good at these races. I haven’t seen him as fit as he is right now, he’s really riled up that he’s going to have his best season ever, he has a lot of experiences racing in these big stage races.”

The team is going to go out there and be aggressive on every stage. “For a continental team, it’s going to be a tough race, it’s a hard race for any continental team but we’re going in there to try and make a mark and we’re going to be really aggressive and we’re not going to follow, and try to make our mark instead of trying to follow the big ProTour teams and be intimidated, we’re going to go on the offense.”

With a strong sprinter core, the team likes the first two stages with a good change of field sprint finishes. The fourth stage, Seaside to San Luis Obispo, is also in the cross hairs with a possibility of a field sprint finish, “ if there isn’t bad weather and wind.”

Then there is the third stage, the Modesto to San Jose stage. “Then obviously the third road stage is the hardest stage probably the one that will decide the general classification.”

“It’s going to be much harder than years past because in years past you could just get to the bottom of Sierra grade and then ride it in whereas there is going to be that whole extra climb which is big leading into Sierra grade. The one thing I noticed is just that the descent between the two climbs, there’s almost no flat and there’s almost no straight road in between the two climbs and so it’s very technical, fast, dangerous descent between the two climbs and it’s a very long stretch of road.”

The seventh and final stage, Santa Clarita to Pasadena, is “the big mystery, it’s the one that I don’t know, I heard that it’s going to be much harder, they’ve done the circuit racing longer, it’s got quite a bit of altitude , that’s the one big mystery stage.”

The team is ready for the Tour of California challenge under the guidance of Jonas Carney and newly appointed performance manager Ken Mills.

“Our team is going to race aggressively and I think it’s the style of riders that we have and it’s the way that I like my team to race is not to sit back and let other people animate, we want to animate.”

The 2008 Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast team roster includes:

Andrew Bajadali
Dan Bowman
Brian Buchholz
Alex Candelario
Martin Gilbert
Mark Hinnen
Ben King
Keven Lacombe
Reid Mumford
Justin Spinelli
Jonny Sundt
David Veilleux
Nick Waite

by Stephanie Gutowski and Lyne Lamoureux

Starting a new journey together, the entire roster of 42 male and female, elite international athletes, mechanics, soigneurs and staff of Team High Road gathered in the San Luis Obispo area of California for a training camp.

The RoadBikeReview crew met with the team on Saturday morning under sunny skies while they were preparing to go for a ride. Given the latest hurdle to challenge the team, the non-invite to the Giro (note: team is in talk with Giro organizers), it wouldn’t have been surprising to encounter a group of long-faced and depressed individuals. Far from it, we found a group of relaxed athletes and busy staff, smiling and excited about the new year.

Team Owner and Manager Bob Stapleton was moving around and talking with everyone, including as shown here, USA Cycling CEO Stee Johnson.

The mood is exemplified by our hilarious conversation with 23-year old Morris Possoni of Italy:

RBR: Do you speak English?
Morris: (smiles) No, sorry.
RBR: How about French?
Morris: No
RBR (now laughing): Japanese?
Morris: Yes…
RBR: Really?
Morris: No … and laughs

Here are some of the sights and sounds we collected.

While the staff was working on the bikes, and making last minutes adjustments, the riders were gathering by the ocean, in groups of eight, for their morning core exercises to get ready for the ride.

George Hincapie (USA) 34
The Tour of California is a great race and I’ll be working hard for my team, a new American team now. We’re really excited and trying to get ready for it. The switch to an American team is good. I can say that I have ridden for an American team all of my career. It’s kind nice to say.

I’ll be focusing on the Classics this year. I’d like to start off strong with the Tour of California.

Marco Pinotti (Italy) 32
I think that this is an important year for cycling in general. We as a team stand as a leader of the world cycling movement. As you have seen in Australia, we win races. We want to complete our mission to change cycling. We have great support from the team management. We are riders riding in the best environment. I think in everything we do we have to find our values, to do everything according to those values, to the rules. It’s important for us to show the young people that the sport still has values, to teach the young riders that it is possible to ride clean.

We want to win stages in the Tour of California. Cavendish or Ciolek are good sprinters, and of course we have George (Hincapie) for GC. I see him working hard and he is focusing on this race. I look forward to show that we work like a team.

Michael Barry (Canada) 32
We dealt with a lot of adversity last year and we’re just hoping it sorts itself out and we can compete. I think we’re proven that we are clean team and hopefully the organizers see that.

My health is good, I took a couple of months off in the middle of last season, looking to get my health back to normal again and my immune system so I feel really good and pretty excited about the season actually.

The first big goal are the Ardennes classics and hopefully we get into the Giro, that was a big goal of mine and I’d love to go the Tour too.

I’m a veteran I guess, my role is helping out the younger guys, I have a strong role as a domestic on the team and also last year I had a lousy season, but in the past I’ve performed well in the one day races and stages races, I’d like to get back to that level again and have some strong finishes in some of the Classics and stuff.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) 20
First year as a pro, my goal is to ride fast and do a good job for the team. Every race I want to do my best.

Bradley Wiggins (UK) 27
The change to being an American team is a positive change. The atmosphere here is good and for us English speaking riders it’s very good. It’s been a good change. I am personally focusing in on the Olympics.

Adam Hansen (Australia) 26
My goal is just try and work as well as I can and try to be a complete rider. I haven’t set any goals on any particular races because the schedule is a bit all over the place, so do what I can really.

Am I tough guy? (smiles) I think so. I hope to do the Crocodile Trophy race again this year, it just depends on the team commitments. Normally I can’t do it because we have a team meeting at that time of the year because the race falls on a bad day. This year, it might change a few times.

John Devine (USA) 22
My goals? Just to prove my value on the team, and show I’m a climber and short stage races. Schedule is getting tossed around a bit but I know that the team would like me to do well in Georgia, the Dauphine hopefully. Things change, programs change.

There’s a lot of guys, we have young guys like Linus with the Tour, Lokvist he’s proven himself, also guys like Kim Kirchen, he’s proven himself, he’s the kind of rider I’d like to be, as well as Rodgers and the others,
there are so many others.

Roger Hammond (UK) 34
My goals? Tour of Flanders is the same, got to wait and see on Roubaix. Tour of Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem, they are guaranteed, the one day classics so I’m just saving for those races as if we’re doing them.

Craig Lewis (USA) 23
It’s my first year with a ProTour team and I’m coming in with one of the best team in the world so my personal goal is just to make an impression and to show that I’m there to help them out and hopefully learn from all the veterans that we have.

I know I’m heading over to Europe and doing a few of the Classics like Liege and Fleche and some of the smaller tours like Dauphine and Catalunya and Romandie, a pretty good program. Definitely looking forwards to doing Liege, it’s the oldest race in the world, and that will be pretty cool.

I just came on through George Hincapie, he’s kind of been my mentor since I started, so he was the contact and he got me to talk to Bob and that’s how I got here.

The riders were divided into groups of eight, and left the resort about fifteen minute intervals, chatting and smiling away.

See you at the races

In the first part of our conversation with Toyota-United rider Dominique Rollin, we talked about his racing start in Quebec, Canada and his years, sometimes difficult, of living and racing in Europe.

Looking back on 2007

At the end of 2006, Dominique Rollin made the decision to return to North American and signed with the American Pro team Kodak-Galley and returned to raced in North American circuit for the 2007 season. “I wanted to reduce my travels, stay closer to home.”

The year started off strong for Rollin with his new team with back-to-back victories in Jacksonville and NRC wins at Roswell and Walterboro. The team was still learning to work together and Rollin felt that there were some coordination problems. “You get to know each other, you come from the amateur level so you don’t really know what to do, a little more energy in the management can bring about a team that works well…. it’s like all teams.”

Rollin estimates that it takes from six to eight months for a team to get to know each other to work well together which was demonstrated by the team results at the end of the year. “We showed it in Ireland, there was 5 of us and we managed to control the race. In Missouri, the guys did a great job. There is always an adaptation time with any team.”

Rollin unsuccessfully tried to defend his jersey at the 2007 Canadian National Championship in the road race which had a much smaller field than usual as it was held on a weekday. “This year there were only around fifty riders which makes a much tighter peloton. I found myself isolated with all the Quebecois watching me because I was the defending champion. It’s always more pressure when you’re the defending champion.”

Rollin represented Canada in the World Championship road race in Stuttgart, Germany in September but had to pull out of the race when he cracked. “I didn’t bring my own nutrition to the World Championship because my team didn’t have any so I took whatever the National Team had, and it was different than what I’m used to. So I didn’t eat enough and with two laps to go, I find myself dehydrated, with a headache and I bonked. I think I could have done at least one more lap if I had eaten correctly, I was able to follow the field, but…”

Looking forwards to this season

In September 2007, the Kodak Gallery Pro Cycling Team announced that it was stopping operations, but even Rollin was already looking to go elsewhere. “There was Symmetrics that had been sending me a few offers, they’ve been after me for two years but looking at the organizational structure, I preferred to go with Toyota.”

Toyota-United has not contacted Rollin because “they thought I was comfortable at Kodak so they didn’t approach me. But knowing that I was free, they absolutely wanted me on the team. So far I’ve received only compliments, I’m happy.”

Rollin sees himself as a domestique, as first and foremost he wants to help the team win races and where possible carve a place for himself. “I can bring 2 or 3 horses more to help Ivan (Dominguez) get a win or I think Hilton Clarke who is also new, a good sprinter.”

“I arrive in a well-tuned structure, it’s completely different than last year with Kodak where I didn’t know what to expect. Toyota is known for its leaders, it’s a strong team.”

Rollin joined his teammates for a two-week training camp in Solvang California, and he expects the integration into the new team to be easy. “The guys are pretty open. I think I might have a bit more difficulty than the three Australians because they all knew each other, I’m a bit less known because I was new to the circuit last year but I don’t think I’ll have any problems. I get along with the guys, it’s going to be fine.”

“You have 2 weeks of training camp to learn how to ride together and I think it’s going to be fine because the majority of the team is the same and they have been working together for 2 or 3 years.”

Rollin’s schedule was not set when we met, but two races are already in his calendar, the Amgen Tour of California in February, for which he has been training for the past two months.

Staying in California until the end of April will maximize his training period for the year, as he learned the hard way the previous year. “Last year, I made the mistake, my team insisted that I return home. Before Redlands, I was stuck in a snowstorm. I returned to Redlands, with jetlag, and one week of rollers, well it didn’t work well.”

The Canadian Championships are on the calendar in early July, as Rollin would like to wear the Maple Leaf once more. Rollin is focused on the Olympic Games as he has been named in the selection pool. “I think that we are still 17 in the selection pool which is huge, especially since about half can’t race past 200 km in that group. It’s completely different,”

Rollin hopes that the selection for the Olympics will be made as late as possible, in May or June, as he typically has good form during that period. “They make their selection closer to the Olympics, races like Philly, races somewhat similar (to the Olympic course), where all the Canadians are present is a good race to make the choice.”

Rollin loves the hard one-day races but is starting to appreciate the stage races, as he discovered in the previous year. “I was a bit dreading stage races because I cracked on the last day, or it was very difficult. My reference has always been Tour de Beauce, and it’s always been until this year somewhat of a failure for me.” laughed Rollin.

Working with his coach Brian Walton on his endurance helped Rollin gain a certain maturity, and it payed off. “In the Tour of Ireland I was getting stronger every day. I think I was the only rider getting stronger every day.”

No decisions have been made about returning to Europe in the future, and no decisions will be taken until the year with Toyota unfolds. “The American circuit is getting to be more and more interesting with the addition of Tour of Missouri, the return of Tour of Utah, Tour of Colorado new in 2008.”

Rollin loves to cook, a skill he refined while living in France, and when I asked him if there would be a competition with Toyota-United’s Ivan Stevic who also loves to cook, his answer was “Bring it on”.

“Bring it on” summarizes Rollin approach to this year, as he tackles the domestic circuit with the experience garnered on roads over Europe and North America.

One of the four new riders on the Toyota-United Pro Cycling is the 6-Time Canadian National Road Champion Dominique Rollin who won nine races as a first-year professional in 2007 and finished third overall at the inaugural Tour of Missouri. The 25-year old spent many of his formative years racing and living in France for amateur teams, including the well known V.C. Roubaix Lille Metropole.

I sat down with Dominique Rollin over a Monday morning coffee on his first day at the Toyota-United training camp in Solvang, California. He shared his background, his goals for the year, and our conversation was punctuated by laughs and chuckles.

Toyota-United contacted Rollin when his 2007 squad, the Kodak Gallery Pro Cycling Team announced that it was stopping operations. “I really didn’t really have any negotiations with them. The day after my team announced that it was folding, I received a call from Toyota. Just like that.”

Rollin is part of the Toyota-United squad for the Amgen Tour of California and will be looking to help out the team and to make his mark this season.

About his background

In his hometown of Boucherville, Quebec, at the tender age of ten, Rollin entertained himself by following on his mountain bike his older brother, who raced bikes, on his training rides.

“I think this is my fifteenth season this year… yeah, I’ve spent more than half my life on a bike. My parents kept me back, but the year after, at 11 years old, I started racing and since then it’s a passion.”

The amateur circuit in the province of Quebec allowed him many opportunities to challenge himself and to develop as a racer. “There was always at a minimum, about thirty riders lining up for each race for each category. Even sometimes we were fifty-ish. It’s good when you are 10 or 11 years old, about forty guys to race against and with.”

Rollin continued to race in Quebec and Canada, and his results impressed Jacques Landry, the then coach of the National Team, and starting in 1999, he raced in Europe with the National Team.

In 2003 and 2004, Rollin joined French amateur teams and even though he made a name for himself, he couldn’t find a team for the 2005 season. “I came back home for a bit of rest, relaxation, of rethinking of my career,” said a laughing Rollin. “these things happen. It’s tough going to Europe, it’s known to be tough mentally, especially as an amateur because there isn’t really a good team organizational structure, you are just left on your own where only results matter.”

After returning to race in Quebec, Rollin send an email to V.C. Roubaix Lille Metropole amateur team in September 2005, with almost no expectations. He was going to stay in Quebec and race just for fun, when in November, DS Cyrille Guimard contacted him. “He said ‘we have a spot that just opened, are you interested in joining us?’ ‘Yes’, when Cyrille Guimard calls you, you say yes. I jumped on the opportunity, it was a good experience.”

Unfortunately, Rollin found that the team while “looking organized from the outside, was a mess from the inside,” or as Rollin said “Pourquoi faire simple quand on peut faire compliquer.”

Living and Racing in France

Rollin learned tremendously from racing and living in Europe especially from his first Directeur Sportif, Guy Gallopin, brother to Astana’s Allain Gallopin. From him, he not early learned how to race correctly, but all the work off the bike essential to being a profesional racer, such as auto-massage techniques, stretching refinements. Gallopin also made him work on his pedaling technique, “before I was just pushing, I pointed my foot, I think I spent 3 months working my pedaling technique, I would race and even the juniors would beat me” laughed Rollin. His pedaling improved, and “I saw a big difference, I was really comfortable in a race when I had to give it my all.”

Obviously, Rollin had to go through an adjustment phase when he went to race in Europe. “I was going to Europe since ‘99 with the National Team so it is a transition to go from a 60-man field to a 200-man strong peloton racing on roads four times narrower.”

“It was an adaptation, but it was there that I really learned how to race, it was there that I learned to read a race correctly, how to position myself.”

He remembers one race in particular that helped him understand how to race in the wind, and how to use echelons. “The Olympia Tour in Holland where I took a wicked beating but after that I knew how to ride in the wind.” chuckled Rollin, “After that, there were no problems.”

Living in France was not easy even if he spoke the language. For the three years that he lived in France, he had the bad luck to find himself living in apartments that were removed from everything. In his second year, his apartment was surrounded by schools which were empty during the summer. “There is no one, you find yourself all alone, with no mode of transportation, no car, without anything, so I had no one to see. After a while, you really need to talk to someone that doesn’t know anything about cycling to get your mind of cycling.”

A lot of riders have difficulty adjusting to moving to another country and often can’t adapt. “You leave the country but when you get there the team wants you to only think of cycling, cycling, cycling but you need time to think of other things, to see other things… that is what is so tough, missing that little moment of rest makes you crack.”

For Rollin, 2004 was a difficult year where he questioned his cycling career, so much so that he put his “World Championship at risk which is the reason I was second to last at the time trial.” He had been reaching out to the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) for two months asking for assistance to no avail “because the man in charge was a Frenchman in France and he couldn’t understand what we were going through.”

“There was a cultural barrier even though we spoke the same language. We need to move, to see other things, you can’t really stay in front of TF1 and France 2 all the time”, summarized a laughing Rollin.

In 2006, V.C. Roubaix Lille Metropole took a professional license while they were in negotiations with Rollin without informing him of this change of licensing. When Rollin heard the news through the media, he stopped the negotiations”, due to “a lack of respect.”

Stay tuned for part two, when Rollin recaps his 2007 season and we go over his goals for the 2008 year with the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team.

Photo c. Kathleen Poulos and Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team

by Stephanie Gutowski and Lyne Lamoureux

The UCI Continental Bissell Pro Cycling Team strategy to grow slowly is paying off, and the team is looking to improve on its 2007 accomplishments. Team Manager Mark Olson started building up the team four years ago and his goal “from the beginning was to build a quality organization from the ground up, build it slow and to keep adding talent and experience.”

The RoadBikeReview crew met with the team during their two week training camp in Santa Rosa. The team, split up amongst 3 houses in this beautiful area in Northern California, was finishing up breakfast and getting ready for their ride. Some riders were watching the Giro to prepare to train for the next hours in hopefully sunny conditions which have been rare in the past weeks.

With a new title sponsor - last September, Bissell announced its transition from co-sponsor of the 2007 Priority Health presented by Bissell Pro Cycling Team to the title sponsor - the team grew from 12 riders to 14 with the addition of two-time Giro finisher Aaron Olson, climber Burke Swindlehurst and New Zealand’s Jeremy Vennell, coming off from 4 years of racing in Europe. For Mark Olson, “after a phenomenal year with Ben Jacques-Maynes right out of the gate with the NRC points lead”, the 2008 team is “much deeper team, a more experienced team”.

“We are adding to the top end of our team so the expectation is hopefully we can do what we did last year. If we do the same, that would definitely be very acceptable to us but we obviously try and strive to do the best we can and you know going into the season with a good positive attitude.” said Directeur Sportif Glen Mitchell.

The goal of the team, repeated by everyone, is simply “win races” Olson elaborated. “I want us to get on the podium for our sponsors. If we end up getting the lead for the NRC points then we might make some adjustments but out of the gate we want to win races.”

The focus of the team is stage races and the big one day races. “We featured last year in California, we featured in Georgia, we want to build on that, we want to feature more in those races, tour of California, Georgia, Missouri, National Championships, the Philly races.“ said Mitchell.

Returning riders

Twenty-nine year old Ben Jacques-Maynes’ personal goal “remains the same” - winning the NRC - “but for the team I’d like to see the guys step up and get an equal amount of wins. I definitely think we have the team to do that.” For Jacques-Maynes, the team will now multiple options to play out, “the middle of the race, the end of the race, how we’re going to affect the race”. “You’ll see a lot of aggressiveness, positive racing out of our team and hopefully a lot of wins. You’ll see us in a lot of breaks in the Tour of California. We’re going to be putting the Bissell name out there. With riders like Burke we’ll make it over the steep climbs and big rollers like Aaron, me and Tom. It’s gonna make for some exciting racing. I am focusing on the prologue. A nice short 5 minute effort like that has my name written all over it.” (More in Ben Jacques-Maynes interview).

Tom Zirbel’s 2007 season, marred by a blood clot in his leg followed by a pulmonary embolism ended on a high note with his fourth-place finish at the US Pro Time Trial National Championship. He wants to start the new year where he left off, and is focused on the Tour of California prologue and Solvang time trial, “It’s my job to do well in those two races. As the race changes I may be asked to do other things, like get in a breakaway, or chase down a break, I just need to be ready. We have some excellent GC riders and the goal is to some where down the line to get me ready to be a GC rider. I am still learning a lot. If my time trialing puts me in a position to do well in the GC, they will support me.”

Australian Richard England’s personal goals are to get an overall improvement from last year. “This is the first year I have not done track racing in Australia. I have been concentrating a lot more on the road and hopefully that turns out to some good results for me and the team. I want to improve on my consistency more than anything. During the last three years I have good races and last year was a step up as to consistency but I want to step that up again.”

Pennsylvania-native Scott Zwizanski’s goals are focused on one day races. “My main goal, personal goal for the whole year is Philadelphia week races. That is my strength, hard one day races. So outside of that, well my goals, all my goals are all team oriented anyway, in stage races, I’ll be helping out our GC boys and time trial boys to kick some butt.”

Twenty-four old Teddy King is starting his third year with the team. “I think the team surprised a lot of people last year. Given the extra fire power we got this year in Burke (Swindlehurst) and Aaron (Olson), that’s definitely going to help out the team in moving up in the NRC standings. Having a guy like Burke, he can climb at the end of the day, instead of putting the burden…well not burden…but there was a lot on Ben’s (Jacques-Maynes) shoulders. I am going to try to help out as much as possible.”

Returning for his second year on the team, twenty-two year old Morgan Schmitt’s personal goals are to have a good ride in the Tour of Pennsylvania. “It’s a race for U25 riders, and me Steven (Howard) and Graham (Howard) will go going there. Hopefully we’ll be racing with guys around the world. I’d like to have some more depth in my legs this year. I want to be able to help out more and as a team I’d like Ben Jacques-Maynes to win the NRC this year. See what we can do this year on the circuit because we have a lot more firepower.”

Omer Kem sees himself as a rider for the team, and he wants to help the team win more races this year. “Our focus will be less on the NRC title and go get every race. The team is a lot deeper this year.” He wants to ride well in California, Georgia, and Missouri. As an Oregonian, Mt Hood and the Cascade Classics have a special place in his heart. “If I was gonna say, ‘Hey guys, it would be really nice to do well.’ One of those two in front of family and friends would be very nice.”

Winner of the 2007 Tour of Leelanau, Garrett Peltonen is just happy to be part of the organization. “I think on the team level we are watching the progression continue. Last year we didn’t know what to expect, had a lot of new pieces and this year we picked up a lot of new pieces, a level higher than last year. There is no special race I am targeting. I am just letting the pieces fall. I am the worker who is still learning.”

New riders

Jeremy Vennell is starting his first year in America after riding with DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed in Europe. “One of my personal goals is to win a race here in America, and to get a good idea of the races here. I did one race here last year and it’s different than racing in Europe. I am pretty excited about racing here. We are looking for a good team spirit. “

After two years in the ProTour, first with Saunier-Duval and then TMobile, Aaron Olson is back to racing in America. “I think I have one of the leadership roles along with Ben, who proved himself last year so well. I want to come in and bring extra firepower to the team, bring my experience of racing in Europe. For me my goal is to help the team get results, whether it’s me, or help Ben or Tom, or whoever to achieve better results. I wanted to come back to a team that was more like a family, that was a little smaller, where everyone gets along really well. There are races that I would like to do well, depends on how well my form is at that time. I have always liked the Philadelphia race and the Tour of Georgia is a great race. My first goal is to do well at the Redlands Classics.”

Bringing a lot of experience to the team in 2008 is Burke Swindlehurst. The thirty-four year old climber’s goals for this season are the same that they’ve always been which is just to help the team get results first and foremost, those come ahead of any personal goals. “From a personal perspective, I always have a few races that I really like which are you know obviously for me, races with big hills in them, so Tour of the Gila has always been a favorite, Hood, I love Hood that’s a great race, Cascades, Tour of Utah is back which I’m really excited about. And apparently there’s a stage in Colorado which is just after the race in Utah.”

Portuguese born João Miguel da Silva Correia stopped racing in 1996 after riding for Portuguese and Dutch pro teams and started seriously training again a year and half ago. “This is the year that I am really focusing on doing well and National Championship for the time trial are very important to me and hopefully going to the Olympics for the time trial. Olympics are my big goal”. His role in the team is to help out and mentor where possible. “I’d love to work with the younger riders to share some of my experiences. My role is always as a helper, that tends to be the traditional role of Portuguese riders, we’re great helpers.”

“We really had the pick of the crop this year.” said Mark Olson. “We could have pretty much got whoever we wanted, we are very selective. Chemistry is number one for this team. It’s definitely been the strategy from the beginning to grow slow and keep adding guys like Ben and Burke.”

Mitchell wants to “get the name of the team out there and that’s definitely what we want to do and we want to do it on our bikes. That’s the attitude that we are going with.”

The first big race for the team is the upcoming Tour of California. Last year, the team was very disappointed with the events that happened in stage one where if not for race commissaires’ decision, the team would have held the leader’s jersey. “It was stuff that was out of our control, and we had to bit our tongue a little bit on those decisions, we would have been in the yellow jersey. We weren’t, “ said Mitchell, “Ben has been working hard to have a day in that jersey that would make our whole tour if that happened. “

The Bissell Tour of California squad will be led by Ben Jacques-Maynes and time-trial specialist, Tom Zirbel, Vying for the six remaining spots are Aaron Olson, Burke Swindlehurst, Garrett Peltonen, Omer Kem, Jeremy Vennell, Richard England, Teddy King, and Scott Zwizanski.

2008 Bissell Pro Cycling Team

Richard England (AUS)
Graham Howard (USA)
Steven Howard (USA)
Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA)
Omer Kem (USA)
Teddy King (USA)
Aaron Olson (USA)
Garrett Peltonen (USA)
Morgan Schmitt (USA)
João Miguel da Silva Correia (POR)
Burke Swindlehurst (USA)
Jeremy Vennell (NZL)
Tom Zirbel (USA)
Scott Zwizanski (USA)

See also:

• Tom Zirbel - Healthy and aiming for the time trial
• Burke Swindlehurst - it’s all about the team
• Ben Jacques-Maynes - still burning with fire

In the first part of our conversation with Bissell Pro Cycling rider Ben Jacques-Maynes, we recapped his 2007 season and his use of the track to enhance his training for the upcoming season.

More about his team and changes in 2008

Simply stated Jacques-Maynes likes and respects his teammates. “It’s just a nice group of guys who I actually really like hanging out with and I think that’s also been brought together by Glen Mitchell”. New Zealander Glen Mitchell is the directeur sportif of the team, and is a former teammate of Jacques-Maynes.

“I told myself if I had the opportunity to race under him. He’s a great tactician, really attentive to detail of the race in general and I knew he could apply that to being a manager. Obviously I think he’s really well acquitted himself in his job. I think we fit together well and I race well under his style.”

The new year brought changes to the team with five new riders joining a core of returning riders, increasing the overall number of riders from 12 to 14. As soon as Jacques-Maynes signed on, Mitchell asked for input and feedback.” Glen wanted a lot of input about who he was talking to. Like all negotiations, nothing was locked down, there was a lot of back and forth, ‘what about this guy, that guy to fill that role and as it kind of gelled together. I personally trust Glen’s ability to put together a solid team. There are budgetary requirements as well, you can’t just spend the moon and buy whoever you want.”

The team slots were filled, and the team is now complete, and Jacques-Maynes feels “the guys on my team are top notch, we put a little heavier top end now and I think it’s going to be a better combination.”

“We have a certain racing style and we’re not going to sit around and wait for bunch kicks all year long because we don’t have the money to go hire one huge sprinter and then the whole leadout train for him. You hire five guys who can upset everything on a train once it’s assembled, you get the guys who throw the money wrench in the program, cause mayhem at the end of a race through solo perseverance.”

Jacques-Maynes is looking forwards to work for some of the guys, such as new rider on the team Burke Swindlehurst. “Burke as our climber is a great example… I can go for the first kilometer of a climb, string it out and then just drop anchor. I wasn’t able to do that all year and I’m really looking forwards to that.”

Two new riders are Jeremy Vennell and Aaron Olson. “Vennell, a new kiwi and he’s super fast, He’s probably going to be a little bit better climber that me – which isn’t that hard right now – and still be just as good a TT rider”. And Olson joined the team after two successful years racing in the UCI ProTour, is “just strong everywhere.”

“I probably won’t have as many good results to point too this year because the team is going to be so much stronger.”

About his goals in 2008 and the Tour of California

Jacques-Maynes’ goals for 2008 can be simply described as “just being consistent once again, and wins, wins, wins, and obviously I’d like to win the NRC.” And he doesn’t care how they come, either for himself or setting up a teammate, “I want to see a lot of wins out of my team.”

He wants to “put the Bissell name out there and I know think that we are one of the top teams in the country and we may not be perceived as that yet and we just need to prove it.”

“I know we can do it. You get one or two other guys performing consistently, and me performing consistently and Tom Zirbel healthy and we’re going to be in the finale of every single race we do. If we’re doing that, that means we made our mark.”

A strong and consistent builds confidence and “once you show at a race with confidence like that, you can’t help but perform, and I have confidence in my guys and I want to help them do it too”. A chuckling Jacques-Maynes added “I can’t do it myself anymore.”

The upcoming Tour of California is very important to Jacques-Maynes and his team. As a specialist “in short time trials for me, it’s what I feel I’m particularly good at”, Jacques-Maynes is aiming for the prologue and wants to year that yellow jersey.

The Tour of California “is going to be a difficult race”. Looking at the stage 3, the 102.7 miles from Modesto to San Jose, climb to the 4360-foot summit of Mt. Hamilton followed by a fast descent before the road again tilts upwards again on the ascent of Sierra Road. “There are going to be a lot of guys struggling to make the time cut on the race into San Jose.”

“That climb over the back of Mt Hamilton is 40 miles long and then we’re hitting Sierra Road. There was a group that was off the back of Sierra Road half an hour down, that’s without any climbing to get there. Now you do some huge climb like that, they better go piano up thirty of those forty miles, or it’s going to be … it could be an hour down easily. It’s that big of a climb, it’s that long of a climb, it’s not shallow. For the last 6 miles climbing Hamilton, if it’s raining down here, it will be snowing up there, and then you have another climb after you shiver your way seventeen miles down that mountain.”

Weather could play a major factor in the race. “Just because we’ve had kick ass weather for the past two years, just because we’re sitting around in 60 degree weather in January doesn’t mean it will be like that. I don’t know if they didn’t show up here when it’s just pouring rain and 60 miles per hour wind at my house a week ago and it was 120 miles an hour over the top of Hamilton. I don’t even want to contemplate riding my bike in that stuff.”

The final and seventh stage in the Tour of California is new this year, and is unknown to Jacques-Maynes. “The one thing I don’t know is the climb in Angeles forest on the last day, there are going to be a lot of DNF that day because they don’t care about the time cut. You’ll have three quarters of the race dropping out, Another huge climbing day in February and you climb another 5 thousand feet, it’s going to be, in the best scenario it’s going to be brutal. In the worst scenario, it’s going to be a death march. And in February people won’t entertain that so it could be a recipe for disaster for the race.”

About the state of American cycling and doping

To Jacques-Maynes, American cycling is “never like even ebb and flow, there’s transition, it’s an revolving wheel, it seems … every team wants to build up, and become the best team in the world, that epitome ride he Tour de France, blah blah blah People want to talk big and want to do it, fine, let them. I don’t think it’s changing the state of American cycling at all.”

Always a proponent of clean, aggressive and positive racing in America, Jacques-Maynes doesn’t know “if we’ll have it because there will always be some kind of hijinks thrown into the mix and now the problem now is there will be perception of hijinks and whether it happens or not, you know there could be a negative consequence.”

Our conversation then shifted to doping in cycling, and the perception that finding a clean rider is hard. Jacques-Maynes emphatically stated “Here’s one right here. I do nothing but ride my bike hard and I’ve been doing my whole time. I’ve got two kids to support and feed, and I want to be here and around long after I’ve ever been a cyclist. When that’s a distant memory I want my health, I want to say that I did that, I was proud of what I did and whatever level of success I’ve achieved I want to be proud of what I’ve done. I want to try and inspire people to do like me.”

Jacques-Maynes was very upset when Nathan O’Neill tested positive in October 2007. “How many time did I finish second to him? how many times did I… you know with just those second place finishes how many NRC points would I have gotten? you know I’ve had race wins taken away from me by dopers before.”

“It seems like war, you keep on looking forwards to a time when it won’t be a war going on. You want to be optimistic, something will always come out, something will always happen… all I can do is remain optimistic and do the best that I can do and show people that you can succeed, you don’t have to win every race.”

His plan is to “not worry about what everyone is doing and if you do get those wins, it makes so much better because in the back of your head you know that someone out there is doing some shit and you still beat them so ‘take that’.”

Ben Jacques-Maynes of the Bissell Pro Cycling team, took time to answer some questions on a beautiful and sunny January day, a lucky break between the rain soaked and stormy days that populate the first two months of the year in Northern California. Jacques-Maynes was at the Hellyer Velodrome to help out fellow cyclists in their quest to attend the UCI Track World Cup, get some training in and enjoy the local cycling scene.

While 2007 was seen by some as a breakthrough year for Jacques-Maynes, he sees it as “just a more consistent year. I’ve won stage races in previous years, I’ve on stages of stage races in previous years, I’ve been up in the GC of stage races. I just was kind of forced to always do it, so it’s the pressure of the team, pressure I put on myself, opportunities to use good form and then just one hundred percent motivation.”

About training on the track and being his own coach

Given our locale, the conversation started off with a discussion of training on the track. Jacques-Maynes had some early aspirations with regard to track racing at the beginning of the 2007 season but then had to focus on the road season. “I had a good run at racing the track in the middle of the year and then the stress of the road racing and having a baby really just killed all impetus to want to race period and to want to go through that hard in December.”

To pursue any dreams of racing track at the international level, Jacques-Maynes discovered that he needed a lot more experience. “I need to learn the technical side, the gearing, the gear in general, learn how to use a track bike to the best of my abilities. For what I was doing so far, I mimicked my road position, I had 175 cranks so that I could jump back & forth between the road bike and the track bike easily. I’m now learning that I need to actually race a track bike as a track bike and that’s going to be a totally different position, a totally different training regiment and if I can try to put that together over the next couple of years, really learn it, I might try it again.”

He uses training on the track to get his intervals in, to learn some new tactics and for speed work, as track training brings “just a little bit more speed, a little bit higher end of the race.” In 2007, every good session on the track was followed by a win at an NRC stage race the following week. While Jacques-Maynes wouldn’t attribute the wins directly to this training, but the track “definitely helps when I have good form putting power on top of that. Obviously that makes a difference when it comes down to a finale on the road.”

For many years, Jacques-Maynes has been his own coach, using heart rate and then power for training and “obviously it’s working so can’t complain.”

Jacques-Maynes worked with coaches for three or four years, learned from them and “ended up doing a bunch of my own workouts and alter the training they were telling me to do with greater success so I was basically not getting enough training load and I basically started doing my own thing.”

He was quick to point out with a chuckle that “I couldn’t do that for anybody else and I’m probably not interested in doing coaching as a business or as any kind of endeavor. I barely have enough patience for doing my own training.”

Looking back at 2007

Jacques-Maynes’ intentions were announced at his first race in February by finishing third in the Tour of California prologue. He would have worn the leader’s jersey after the first stage if not for a decision made by the race commissaires. A huge crash involving about fifty riders, including then leader Levi Leipheimer, occurred as the peloton passed the finish line to begin the second of three finish circuits but Jacques-Maynes avoided the pile up and finished safely ahead of the field. Typically, when crashes occur within the final 3km, an automatic same-time designation is set for the riders, but this exception ruling was based solely on the commissaires’ discretion.

“Tour of California was the real start of me getting pissed off riding my bike, you know I wanted to prove to people that I would have deserved to hold that jersey and to prove that I would have been a deserving leader. “

“And then from that point on, it was fight from behind as leader of an underdog team, take it to Health Net, take it to Toyota, get some glory away from them whenever I could.”

Jacques-Maynes took the first spot in the National Race Calendar (NRC) standings early on in March 2007 by winning the Central Valley Classic, the third race on the calendar. He held on to the lead for the following five months by finishing in the top five of the many events such Redlands Bicycle Classic, and Mt Hood Cycling Classic.

Jacques-Maynes took a break in his very long season, to welcome his second child, a daughter named Chloe born at the end of July. During this period, he lost the top position in the standings.

After 36 of the 40 events on the calendar were completed, Jacques-Maynes retook the NRC lead soon again in early August, and held on until the final race of the season. One day after riding in an early-race breakaway at the USA Cycling Professional Championships in Greenville on Sunday, Jacques-Maynes placed 30th in the field-sprint finish of the 62-mile U.S. 100K Classic in Atlanta. On the final 2007 NRC standings, he placed second, trailing Australian Rory Sutherland (Health Net presented by Maxxis) by 39 points.

With a few months since his last race, Jacques-Maynes looked back at his 2007 year. “A lot of second places, good podium places, more wins than I’ve had. I can’t complain about the consistency I had. In past years, I’d shown up and wanted to get a couple of top 5 NRC races. And I was top 5 at just about every single one I did if I showed up good or bad, whatever point of training, I had to perform. Really I was sort of dragging by the end of the season.”

“It felt like a year of good performance, but almost could have been, who knows that much better performance. And what that that has really done is put a lot of fire in me.”

About his brother

2007 was also marred by the horrific crash of his twin brother Andy. On Memorial Day, after brutally hitting a lamp pole, Andy Jacques-Maynes was evacuated via helicopter and diagnosed with multiple serious injuries, including a bruised lung, bruised ribs, and a broken collarbone.

Jacques-Maynes is very proud of and admires his brother for not only recovering from this horrendous but coming back to win the the Masters A 30-34 race at the National Cyclocross Championships in Kansas City, after a second broken collarbone in the fall.

“I saw the amounts of pain that he was in in the hospital after that he couldn’t sleep in a bed for three weeks, he slept in a chair because he couldn’t lie flat. He had to wear a back brace for sever weeks straight, it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone and just going through that period… it takes a huge amount of mental fortitude to get through that. Now to get through that with a thought of racing again, and persevering to come back that’s … it’s something I’m very proud of Andy, his ability to do that, I’d call it heroic.”

He is inspired by his Andy to work hard. “Just like everything that Andy and I have done on a bike together, when he has success I’m happy for him one but I know I can do that too. When he beats me, I know I can be that good, so it’s kind of double fold win, so it gives me confidence that I know I can work that hard. If he can work that hard, I can work that hard. Hopefully not having to come back, just to keep on going and want to keep on doing this sport.”

About his team

Jacques-Maynes is embarking on his second year with the team, with Bissell stepping up as the primary sponsor last September, and appreciates the management style of the team owners, Cheryl and Mark Olson.

“The Olsons are successful business people, they are not washed up bike racers who want to stay in it, they know how to run a business, they know how to take care of people, they say what they are going to do and they do what they say. From everything - from initial contact to negotiations to racing for them through the year to re-negotiating contracts - has been above board and very refreshing. Having dealt with cycling hijinks for years. It’s really nice dealing with people…they don’t have favorites, they treat everyone on the team with respect, it doesn’t matter who it is, and they demand results too, they want you to go out there and perform, they’re very happy when you do and when you don’t they let you know about that too. It’s realistic, it’s got a good business model period and it’s well executed. “

Jacques-Maynes hopes to stay with the team for years to come. “I had a two year contract and they threw that out and gave me a new two year contract. They’re good people. At least two more years and preferably longer.”

Stay tuned for part two where BJM shares more of his thoughts on his team, on his goals for the 2008 season and the state of American cycling.