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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On Thursday evening, the 70 (or so) riders lined up in front of an enthusiastic crowd in historic Downtown Truckee, for the fast 75-minute Truckee Criterium. Ian McKissick and his three BMC teammates had their hands full trying to control the attacks. BMC’s Taylor Tolleson crashed out in Wednesday’s Reno Criterium, and broke his collarbone. In the end, a trio got away from the field, and Roman Kilun (Health Net-Maxxis) won the stage for his first NRC win. Amateur Jon Baker (Vitamin Cottage) took second and Justin England (Toyota-United) was third. McKissick kept the leader’s jersey, and England moved himself up to the second spot at 6 seconds back. Health Net-Maxxis duo of Corey Collier and Matt Cooke are at 17 seconds back.

(l-r): Strategy meeting for the Kelly Benefit/Medifast team; BMC’s McKissick and Scott Nydam; Riders lined up and ready to go

Aaron Olson (Bissell) checking behind him

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Ritchey WCS cockpits also help secure second place,
overall team honors and 13 podium finishes

San Carlos, Calif.  – In his third overall stage race win within six weeks, Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis rider, Rory Sutherland rode a near perfect race to clinch the Nature Valley Grand Prix title while he and his teammates rode Ritchey WCS 4Axis stems, WCS carbon seat posts, WCS handlebars, the Hammerhead Carbon TT bar and the newest, carbon prototype drop style TT base bar.

Close behind were teammates John Murphy who finished second place and Kirk O’Bee who captured a number of podium finishes throughout the five day stage race.

Minnesota’s Nature Valley Grand Prix (June 11-15, 2008) route tests riders with its more than 200-mile, six stage course which includes technical criteriums, blazing time trials, grueling climbs and this year, strong winds and downpour. The very first stage was neutralized due to extreme weather conditions.

As a high level performance team, Health Net presented by Maxxis has been on Ritchey WCS cockpits for the past five years. Ritchey’s dependable and high-performance products allow Health Net presented by Maxxis to focus on racing and winning.

Ritchey WCS products have carried countless riders to Olympic, World Cup and World Championship victories. Utilizing the most innovative designs, materials and technologies, the WCS (World Championship Series) level product line has truly earned its strips.

Health Net presented by Maxxis will race next at the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix in Manhattan Beach, Calif., June 29, 2008.
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By James Lockwood

In a stage race where “epic” is an apropos word used to describe weather conditions, Thursday’s second stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix – the Cannon Falls Road Race – provided a bit of a surprise.

It was sunny, in the 70s, with little crosswinds.

“We were waiting for the crosswinds to come, but they never did,” said Healthnet-Maxxis’ Kirk O’Bee.

“We were actually hoping for a lot of crosswinds,” his director sportif, Mike Tamayo, said.

Without those winds, Healthnet-Maxxis did what any team with a national criterium champion would do. They sat in on the 60-mile jaunt through the rolling farm country of east-central Minnesota until the finishing circuits, led four of five finishing laps through the 2-mile circuit, and delivered O’Bee to the win he was denied in the first stage of Nature Valley.

“Normally you wouldn’t start [leading] from eight-and-a-half miles out, but our guys were strong,” Tamayo said.

O’Bee tipped his hat to his team for the pace they pushed.

“They did it perfectly,” O’Bee said. “Without those guys, I wouldn’t have won.”

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Atlanta, GA – For a team to defend a race lead over seven stages takes a tremendous amount of effort on everyone’s part to ensure the win. For one rider to do it on his own start to finish is almost unimaginable.

But John Murphy of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis pulled it off during the five-day, seven-stage Tour of Atlanta this past weekend, despite having to contend with full squads form a number of teams, including UCI continental team Toshiba.

Murphy won the opening-stage time trial by a solid 0:31 margin, but had five members of Toshiba within 0:55 of him after the stage.

But after the second stage – an unusual street sprint stage done over three rounds of sprints only, with time bonuses awarded for the top three finishers in each sprint – Murphy pushed his lead out to a slightly more comfortable 0:54 after winning all three rounds of his sprints.

From there it was a matter of being vigilant and riding defensively. He finished second in the stage 3 circuit race, and second again with a composite team in the stage 4 team time trial. But his lead had shrunk to 0:20 after the TTT. That lead held through stage 5, and despite a time bonus for another second place in the stage 6 criterium, his lead dropped to 0:16. But that’s where it stayed after the final stage criterium.

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Oakland, CA – After consecutive overall stage race titles the past two weeks, Rory Sutherland of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis has opened a commanding lead in the most recent USA Cycling National Racing Calendar individual points standings.

With 976 points, Sutherland has a 569-point lead in the competition, with well more than twice the total of the next closest rider, Ted King (Bissell; 407 points). Sutherland opened the sizable lead by virtue of winning the Joe Martin Stage Race and the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic in consecutive weeks this month.

On the strength of Sutherland’s results, Health Net Presented by Maxxis has also opened up a solid lead in the team standings, with 1,726 points, 512 points ahead of second-place Bissell (1,214).

“Our goal at the start of the year was not to win either of these competitions,” said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. “Our goal, as always, has been to win races. When you win races, the other benefits like NRC wins come along with that.”

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Canadian Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) outsprinted his breakaway companions to win the final stage, the Hood River Criterium, of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. World B Champion Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) was second and Italian Alessandro Bazzana (Successful Living) came in third.

Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) wins the sprint ahead of Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) and Alessandro Bazzana (Successful Living)

“I was on [Chris] Wherry’s wheel and he sat up, I knew that he’s not going to deliver me to the line, I was just waiting for that, and I was able to get on, I think it was Bazzana’s or Stevic’s wheel, and I came around him at the end. I came around the corner in third wheel.” said Pinfold.

Australian Rory Sutherland protected by his Health Net-Maxxis teammates came in safely across the line to win the overall general classification, shadowed at the line by second place Darren Lill (BMC) and third place Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell).

“I think it was a learning experience for a lot of the guys, a lot of the boys hadn’t done that kind of stuff before. Look at the start list, look at the teams that are here, this is probably one of the. I’d say, one of the best field ever put together on the domestic scene, this and Redlands of course, so it was by no means an easy feat that’s for sure. The guys seemed to get better every day, and really rode above and beyond today, to be honest they don’t get paid enough to do that kind of stuff because they just killed themselves for somebody else and that’s a pretty amazing thing.” said Sutherland about his team.

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Barring disasters, Australian (Rory Sutherland) is set to win his second stage race in two weeks, as his team worked tirelessly to reel in a threatening breakaway in the Queen Stage of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic.

“It’s not over until it’s over. Luckily enough today, we’ll have created some good gaps in the GC again, and there’s only maybe 2 guys to really watch. We’ll go out there fighting tomorrow and try to bring it home for two tours in two weeks.” said Sutherland.

Escapees from the break, Australian Caleb Manion (Toyota-United) outsprinted James Mattis (Cal Giant) to win stage 4, and a charging Sutherland came in third, four seconds back. Mattis attacked the break on the final climb and Manion jumped on his wheel ahead of a charging riders from the field.

“It was a pretty hard climb, it’s my first time here so I didn’t know what to expect. I think James from Cal Giant, he attacked really early, maybe 4K to go, I thought it was actually a little bit to early but he got such a big gap straight away, I was like ‘I sort of better go now’. So I sort of jumped across to him, he was going really, really strong, that’s how it stayed, I did a few turns, he did a lot of work actually, he was really strong, then we come together with 200 to go and then it was a sprint to the line.” said Manion.

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The leader’s jersey changed hands once again after the first climbing stage, the Cooper Spur Circuit Race at the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. Darren Lill (BMC) timed his attack perfectly to outsprint Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) and Chris Meier (Symmetrics) on the final climb to the finish line after 85 miles in the saddle, and he also had to dodge an official’s car at the same time. (Unfortunately so did I, so I missed the final photo at the finish).

“I saved everything for the final kilometer, and I knew that it was probably the steepest pitch of the whole climb, none of the climbs are really all that steep, the guys are obviously at their most tired, it just flattens out with 200 meters to go and I thought if I could just get over the crest with 200, 250 meters to go with a bit of a gap, I should be able to hold on for the win, I just put my head and prayed like mad, I thought my legs were going to fall off at the end but managed to hold on.” said a tried Lill after the stage.

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Phil Zajicek of Health Net presented by Maxxis team is starting the Mt Hood Cycling Classic with winning on his mind. Finally, Zajicek can re-focus completely on racing and training, now that he has a name and more importantly a treatment on the illness he’s been fighting for almost all his career – Crohn’s disease, a chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Photo by Ken Conley

With his previous team Navigators, Zajicek twice finished second overall in 2007 and 2006 at the Mt Hood Cycling Classic, and now wants to move up to the top step of the podium. Health Net-Maxxis is sending a strong squad to support him including Rory Sutherland, winner of the Joe Martin Stage Race.

“I’ve got Rory working for me, got the best rider in America working for me so how can I lose.” replied Zajicek when asked if he was the leader for Hood.

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