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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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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The Rock Racing team successfully protected the 54-second lead Santiago Botero had gained while soloing to victory on Stage 1 on Friday in Beaumont. Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) finished second overall and Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell Pro Cycling) was third. The result was Botero’s first-ever win in the United States and the Colombian also took home the red jersey of best climber in the four-day race.

The Rock Racing team made sure that Redlands was not a repeat of previous weekend’s San Dimas race when they lost the lead in the last stage by one second, by controlling the front of the field throughout the race, never letting a rider get more than a one-minute gap.

After his Colavita-Sutter Home team executed a perfect leadout train in the ultimate lap of the five laps of Saturdays’ criterium course, Alejandro Borrajo won the field sprint ahead of Tony Cruz (BMC) and Rory Sutherland (Health Net p/b Maxxis).

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The 2007 NRC winner Rory Sutherland (HealthNet-Maxxis) went flat out like a lizard drink’n and crossed the line with the fastest time, winning the Redlands Prologue – Sun Time Trial, in nine minutes and fifty-one seconds. Coming in second, with less than 2 seconds slower is Ben Day (Toyota-United). Rounding off the podium, is Dominique Rollin (Toyota-United) with 8 seconds slower than Sutherland.

“It’s hard for everybody. Today a lot of things seem to slide in right, whereas last week in San Dimas they just didn’t happen, I didn’t get it together last week and it’s a matter of trying to iron out those problems, and get the monkey off my back a week early.” said Sutherland about his race today.

Men’s Podium (l-r): Ben Day (Toyota-United), Rory Sutherland (HealthNet-Maxxis) and Dominique Rollin (Toyota-United)

The next stage is the Beaumont Road Race where the 194 men tackle a 138 km circuit race with 2 time bonuses on the line. HeathNet-Maxxis will have its job cut out for them defending the leaders jersey with Toyota-United placing 6 riders in the top fifteen positions. And Rock Racing still smarting from losing their lead in San Dimas and finishing on the second step of the podium, by one second, will be trying to move up Oscar Sevilla now in fourth place.

“It’s good that we have the yellow jersey, obviously you always want to be in the lead, but it’s not good when you look back and see Toyota’s got second and third right behind you, so it gives them some ammo against us. Honestly, it’s going to be hard, tactical racing, and you can’t discount Sevilla right within reach so we’ll see how the racing goes.” said Health Net-Maxxis Directeur Sportif Mike Tamayo.

The team is motivated. “We had a lot of illness at Tour of California, our staff got sick, our riders got sick, that virus went everywhere, plenty of people got sick so we’re happy to be done with it. We went to Taiwan had a great race there, we won fifteen out of sixteen jerseys available so it was a great race.” continued Tamayo.

Same as the women, riders and teams are expecting the Beaumont to finish in a field sprint, and that, again, the last stage, the Sunset road race, be the decisive stage in the Redlands Classic.

“I think it’s going to be a smaller bunch kick, a smaller bunch kick. I don’t think the course is hard enough to really break the field apart but you never know, if the right move goes…” said Tamayo about the upcoming stage 1.

Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis), winner

“It’s a very important race for the team and to be able to do that straight away is a really good thing for our morale. ”

“We just concentrate on today, today and tonight we’ll look at tomorrow. Like I told my good friends here, you get second and third so you can’t have too much of a better day. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, if you look at last year, so many dynamics change this race, so many things can happen especially on a day like Sunday, there’s no concession, it’s racing every single day, we’ll see what happens. If it works out, it works out, and if doesn’t, it doesn’t. We have a very capable group of guys, we’ll see what happens.”

(About his form) “It’s my job to be good pretty much the whole season, I’m trying to stay at a happy medium the whole season so to speak. “

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Continuing where he left off last season, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) defended his title and won the Yokohl Ranch Exeter Time Trial, part of the Sequoia Cycling Classic. After 40 kilometers over a hilly terrain, Jacques-Maynes crossed the line in fifty-six minutes, twenty-five seconds with a lead of forty-nine seconds over second place Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) and one minute fifteen seconds in front of third place finisher Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast).

Time Trial podium (l-r): Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit/Medifast), Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis)

The riders went out at 30-second intervals with Ben Jacques-Maynes in the final positions on the start list.

“I had guys in sight the whole time, steady flow of riders to catch and that always helps motivation and I never cracked, I was working my gears really well and doing what I could.” said Jacques-Maynes.

Rounding off the top five were Heath Blackgrove (Toyota-United) at one minute seventeen seconds back from Jacques-Maynes and Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis) with one minutes 20 seconds gap.

While not part of the NRC calendar for the men this year, the Sequoia Cycling Classic has a long tradition, and is one of the last few training races before the NRC races start in April, and riders are taking one of the few last opportunities to refine their forms. A lot of riders are still recovering from the illnesses from the Amgen Tour of California and were using these last few races as testing ground.

The course started off with a 400 feet climb over Rocky Hill and into rolling and twisting Yokhol Valley gradually climbing 400 feet again before the turnaround and return to the start/finish line. Conditions were windy with a tailwind on the way out and a strong tailwind on the return with rain falling on a few of the last competitors.

Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), winner
“We did a training camp in Visalia several years ago on Sierra Nevada, I’ve ridden all these roads plenty of time, the third time I’ve done this time trial, I did the Rocky Hill road race, way way back when, that was actually my first pro race ever, so got a pretty good history year in Visalia, last year was good, the year before I was second in the time trial. So I know these roads, it’s beautiful out here, definitely hard, hard riding. You never feel like you’re in a rhythm, these roads are always up and down, turning, watching pot holes, always thinking that you could be going faster, never in a rhythm, and coming back over Rocky Hill was just brutal, headwind, I was just trying to make it over the hill honestly.”

“With a big break with the end of Tour of California and the start of the NRC racing, I’ve purposely taken a bit of a break, I was a week sick, and then I took another