GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., – The Kellogg Company, the world’s leading producer of cereal and a leading producer of convenience foods, joins the BISSELL Pro Cycling Team as a key sponsor for the 2009 season. Kellogg’s commitment to nutrition and physical fitness is well aligned with the team and the sport of cycling. Alongside Kellogg, the team continues to be supported by longtime key sponsor, Advantage Benefits Group.

“For five years, we have been proud sponsors of West Michigan’s most successful pro sports team, a team that emphasizes hard work and healthy living,” says Robert Hughes of Advantage Benefits. BISSELL Pro Cycling also welcomes EmploymentGroup, Emerald Spa, and Wynalda Litho to the 2009 Team.

BISSELL is proud to be continuing on Pinarello’s top carbon frame, the “Prince.” All bikes will be professionally fitted with the new Campagnolo Record 11 speed, Easton’s EC and EA range of wheels, Vredestein tires, Speedplay Zero pedals, MOst products (handlebars, stems, cages, posts, saddles and tape), and Blackburn computers.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., – The BISSELL Pro Cycling Team announces that BISSELL Inc. will continue as the title sponsor of one of the country’s top continental cycling teams for 2009. Mark Bissell, Chairman and CEO of BISSELL Inc., builds on his six-year history with cycling by assuming ownership of the team, which will come under the direction and management of Glen Mitchell.

“The team has had a fantastic year and has surpassed the goals that we had in the beginning of the year,” says Mitchell. “I am very excited about becoming more involved with the team, and I look forward to the challenges ahead in building this team to the next level. We have a solid platform of riders from this year and have recruited some talented athletes to strengthen the squad at our targeted races for ’09.” Joining Mitchell on the management team is Eric Wohlberg, who, after 16 years as one of the strongest riders in North America, will assume the new role as Sport Director.

Time trial powerhouses Ben Jacques-Maynes and Tom Zirbel will be returning to next year’s team, and will play key roles as team leaders. Jacques-Maynes was ranked 3rd in this year’s NRC standings, while Zirbel completed his season with an impressive second place finish at the USPRO Time Trial.

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The 2008 road season is coming to a close, and with it, comes time of looking back and thinking about the future. I caught up with 6′ 4″, 194-pound Tom Zirbel of the Bissell Pro Cycling Team on the eve of the Tour of Missouri where we chatted about his season and his wish to go “race the best and biggest races” in Europe.

Returning from an almost aborted 2007 season due to a blood clot, his  third season as a professional started off strong for the 29-year old rider nicknamed Thor. In May, he was leading the Tour of the Gila when he crashed and broke his collarbone amongst other injuries and had to take a break to recover. The time trial specialist came back to win the Tour of Elk Grove prologue, the Tour of Utah time trial and topped it off with a second place finish, just 5 seconds behind winner David Zabriskie (Garmin-Chipotle) in the US Pro Time Trial Championship.

You were coming on strong this year and then crashed at Gila and broke your collarbone.
Tom: Collarbone, three ribs and a hand.

And then, you recovered and came back strong again. How do you handle all that?
Tom: I was just kind of feeling sorry for myself the other day, I’m feeling tired, I can tell it’s been a long season, the break I had was ‘the breaks I had’. It was just after Gila, that was my break trying to recover from those broken bones, it wasn’t like a true restful break. I’m starting to feel the effects of a long season but it’s a good thing that this [Tour of Missouri] is a big race, that I’ve never done it and I’m excited about it, the hard rolling stages suit riders like us. I’m just trying to suck it up and come in with a good attitude and put in my seven days of racing and go out with a bang.

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-Ben Jacques-Maynes Makes His Return-

Grand Rapids, Mich., – BISSELL Pro Cycling’s (BPC) Tom Zirbel is back on form and ready to challenge America’s top time trialists in pursuit of the USA Cycling time trial championship. Zirbel’s recent Tour of Utah Stage 5 time trial victory sent out a clear warning that when he exits the start gates on August 30 in South Carolina at the Greenville Hospital Systems USA Cycling Pro Championships, he will be on a mission.

“I feel really good right now and my time trialing is where it needs to be,” said Zirbel following his Utah victory. “My mid-season crash kept me off the bike long enough to feel the effects but this warm-up gave me the confidence I needed – just to know that I’ve returned to where I was earlier in the season - and I am looking forward to leaving it all out there on the course in Greenville.”

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It is called the race of truth for a reason. After 320 miles and over 30,000 feet of climbing over four days, “America’s Toughest Stage Race” came down to the final 7.5-mile flat time trial at the Tour of Utah. Trailing by seven seconds in the overall classification behind Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle), Utah native Jeff Louder (BMC) came in third and more importantly bested Caldwell’s time by sixteen seconds to be crowned the winner of the Tour of Utah.

Jeff Louder (BMC) gives it everything he’s got in the final meters to win the Tour of Utah

With his form back after breaking his collarbone at the Tour of the Gila back in May, time trial specialist Tom Zirbel (Bissell) stopped the clock at 13:50 to win the final stage. The only other man to break the fourteen-minute barrier, comeback kid Brent Bookwalter (BMC) was second, nine seconds back.

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Billed as America’s Toughest Stage Race, after taking a hiatus in 2007, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah is back in 2008, bigger than ever. From August 13 until August 17, the 17 teams will be challenged by the 5-day, 5-stage, 336 mile race with 30,000 feet of climbing will all take place within a 100-mile radius, encompassing Salt Lake City, Nephi and Ogden.

Who best to describe the course than Bissell leader and Salt Lake City resident Burke Swindlehurst who finished fourth overall in 2006. I chatted with Burke last week during his final preparation for the Tour of Utah.

Burke Swindlehurst at Tour de Nez where his teammate Aaron Olson won the overall

Lyne: We talked way back in February, just before the Tour of California, where you had basically just joined the Bissell team, and we talked about your goals for the year – which were “help the team get results” and “personally, Gila, Hood, Cascade and Utah”. You finished second at Gila, and Ben Jacques-Maynes finished 3rd at Hood. How satisfied are you with your year so far?
Burke: I’m actually very satisfied so far, it’s been better than I expected so far actually. I had a couple of races where I wanted to do well where things didn’t work out but it was more of … just how racing pans out more than not being prepared or not having form. Obviously the podium at Redlands was a really nice unexpected surprise, I usually don’t have super good form that early in the season, so that was nice. And then, Gila, pretty much went according to plan but there was just one little Columbian guy that kind of got in the way of things (laughs) but overall, I’m pretty happy with it.

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Fitchburg, Mass. — Ian MacGregor scored his first win of the season and Shawn Milne earned the points jersey as Team Type 1 figured prominently on Stage 2 of the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic Friday.

MacGregor won the summit finish of the 104-mile (167 km) Wachusett Mountain Road Race ahead of Kyle Wamsley (Colavita-Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light) and Ted King (Bissell Pro Cycling). The victory was MacGregor’s first since he captured the fifth stage of the Tour de Beauce a year ago.

It was the 15th win of the season for Team Type 1, a first-year professional squad whose mission and message is to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health. Four riders on the pro team have Type 1 diabetes.

Milne earned himself a sizeable lead in the points competition by escaping the 139-rider field with Stefan Rothe (Marx & Bensdorf/Tristar). The pair built up a more than five-minute lead before Rothe suffered a flat tire. Milne soldiered on alone, but was caught by the peloton after more than 55 miles (88 km) of freedom.

Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said a long breakaway wasn’t part of the pre-race plan for Milne, who won this race two years ago.

“We said if there was a three or four-man breakaway, we weren’t going to work it very hard because it’s so hard for a small group to stay away,” Beamon said. “But the field lacked cooperation and only two teams, Colavita and Bissell, were doing the chasing. I knew it was going to be suicide for Shawn to win the stage, but it gave him a 90-point cushion on the points jersey.”

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Well, it all came down the final stage at the mighty Tour de Nez to decide the overall winner in the general classification. After a brutal day on Friday, the men faced the 44-mile (70 km) Northstar-at-Tahoe Village Circuit Race. The race course is a hilly, difficult 2-mile loop that includes a passage over the pavers in the Northstar Village, and the adjacent roads at the village.

Going into the stage, Andy Bajadali (Kelly Benefit/Medifast) had a scant lead of 4 seconds over Scott Nydam (BMC) and 5 seconds over Friday’s stage winner Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics). And right behing them in the classification were the Bissell duo of Burke Swindlehurst and Aaron Olson at 18 and 24 seconds respectively from the lead.

Game faces on for red jersey Andy Bajadali (Kelly Benefit/Medifast), mountain jersey Dan Bowman (Kelly Benefit/Medifast) and sprint jersey Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics)

In the end, Bissell loaded the deck and put 3 riders in a 9-man break, kept the pressure on by utting the engines of Tom Zirbel and Graham Howard at the front and grew a 27 seconds gap to Andy Bajadali by the end of the race, giving the overall win to Aaron Olson with a final lead of 13 seconds over second place Bajadali. Scott Nydam (BMC) rounded off the podium.

Health Net-Maxxis’ Roman Kilun outsprinted his breakmates to take his second win in the race. Another repeat is Jon Baker (Vitamin Cottage) who finished second for the second time behind Kilun. In third place was Ben Raby (SRAM).

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First stage of the Tour de Nez - the Reno Crit is in the books. Neo-pro Steven Howard (aka Sven) won the field sprint ahead of Ricardo Escuela (Successful Living) and Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics). Howard is the overall leader in GC, and takes the sprint jersey.

Roman Kilun (Health Net-Maxxis) and Mike Sayers (BMC) tried a move

Bissell squad controlled the race from start to finish

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By Briggs Heaney
Photos by Larry Rosa

Under clear skies and breezy summer conditions in Reno, Nevada, seventy five top professional cyclists embarked on a five stage, four day journey, starting at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada, with a seventy five minute timed criterium race around the parking lot of the casino resort. Unlike in previous years when the race was an omnium, based on individual points earned in each stage, this season’s race is a true stage race, where the overall winner is the rider with the lowest total time combined for the five stages.

The criterium course was contested over a 1.04 mile loop around the parking lot of the Grand Sierra resort, with a slightly uphill finish to complete the first leg of the “Coolest Race in America.” And from the opening gun, the action was fast and furious as the BMC team attacked, first with Jackson Stewart and then with Mike Sayers, looking to push the pace and stretch the field. They were never able to gain a significant gap, as the Bissell team made sure to contain any breakaways. Riding at the front, sometimes as many as five strong, Bissell put both the peloton and the audience on notice that they would be a force to be reckoned with throughout the five stage race.

The field remained largely together for the first sixty minutes of the race, but as the time continued to tick down, multiple attacks went off the front. Steven Cozza of the Slipstream-Chipotle team went away with Aaron Olson of Bissell, but was pulled back by BMC, who were trying to set up the sprint for their designated rider Taylor Tolleson. Finally, in a surprise move with five laps to go in the race, local favorite Alex Candelario went off on his own in an attempt at a solo victory.