There’s a new professional continental team in the pro cycling peloton this year. But this team is different, it has a message. Team Type 1 was created by Type 1 diabetes racers Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health and overcoming the obstacles often associated with the condition. The 15-rider professional roster includes four riders with Type 1 diabetes.

Phil Southerland starts the Redlands TT; photo c. Lyne Lamoureux

The team is serious about the racing, and big guns were recruited, General Manager Tom Schuler and Directeur Sportif Ed Beamon, two of the most established names in domestic cycling, having previously directed the longtime Saturn and Navigators Insurance teams, respectively.

Team Type 1 finished third in the team classification at the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T, second on team classification at the Tour of Langkawi in February and in March, Shawn Milne finished second overall at the Tour de Taiwan.

It all started with a bet. During the college days, Southerland noticed that his friend Eldridge was not taking care of his diabetes and started placing bets on whomever had higher blood sugar paid for dinner.

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Embarking on its third year, the Successful Living presented by Parkpre team, after a training camp lined up at their first team race in 2008, the Sequoia Cycling Classic race.

Buoyed by the 3-year extension with their title sponsor Successful Living, and an increased budget, the team has set an aggressive long term goal, to be number one in the National Race Calendar (NRC) Team Classifications in three year.

“I think that realistically, I’d really like to see a top 3 NRC team by the end of the season, that’s pretty realistic goal with a lot of work, that will be very difficult to do but the horsepower is here, that’s what we’d like to do this season,” said Team Directeur and Olympic medalist Steve Hegg.

Successful Living leadout train at Visalia Crit

The team also wants to be invited to the big American races such as Tour de Georgia, Tour of Missouri and especially Tour of California as their home-state race. One way to get invited is to win more races and start climbing the ranks of the NRC overall.

“I think on paper we’re not as strong as a Toyota-United or a Health Net-Maxxis but I think that camaraderie and everything, we spent the past couple of weeks working on that and I think the guys get along really well and I think they’re going to win a lot of races this year.” said Rider Manager Ryan Yee.
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In a short span of three years, the BMC Racing team went from a regional Elite domestic team to Pro Continental under the leadership of its General Manager Gavin Chilcott. The team announced its presence loud and clear in the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California when Jackson Stewart went on a solo breakaway for 60 miles and won the King of the Mountain jersey for his effort.

Photo by Ken Conley

During the Merco Cycling Classic, Chilcott provided insight into his team and his plan for the future.

For Chilcott, the performance of his team at the Amgen Tour of California is very much representative of the team’s approach to the bigger races. The BMC Racing Team was awarded the Most Aggressive Team of the entire tour, won the King of the Mountains jersey, and had a top ten standing on the general classification with Alexandre Moos.

“We’ll be looking for, by and large, types of races where we won’t be the strongest team so we have to go more on the offensive tactically and be present in the breakaways, we don’t have the type of team that is going to be a dominant sprinting team or necessarily dominant climbing team in terms of individuals. Although in terms of depth, we do have a strong team in terms of climbers, maybe not the best climber in the peloton but a lot of the second tier climbers so we’ll play the strategic options that are available in that tier.”

The 2008 team – a combination of seasoned pros and eager youngsters

As a new Pro Continental teal. the BMC Racing Team started off the 2008 season with a roster of 16 riders, representing the United States, Switzerland and South Africa with 7 riders returning from the 2007 team.

“I think people realize that this is a good opportunity, that it’s already good but further that it’s a work in progress, that everybody is working hard. It’s a very healthy environment for riders, for staff, for management. Management is always to try to understand how to best allocate resources.”

A new rider to the team is 37-year old Tony Cruz, a stalwart member of the Discovery Channel team. “Tony brings the caliber and depth to the team that will be critical for the success of the expanded international program that we have designed for the upcoming two years. In addition to being a versatile and effective rider, Tony brings a valuable level of maturity and leadership to the team.”

Mike Sayers and new to the team Jeff Louder are two senior riders that are also seen as leaders and the hope is that Sayers will be a teacher for some of the younger guys at setting up the finish. “He had a great career, hundred of wins with Gord Fraser so he knows the drill. That’s something that will be good with Kohler, Wyss and with Tony as well.”

The three young Swiss riders, 24-year old Steve Bovay, Danilo Wyss and Marin Kohler, both 23-year old established their presence in the under 23 European circuit. Wyss finished 3rd at Paris-Roubaix, and 5th at the World Championships, Kohler won a stage at Tour de l’Avenir and would probably have finished on the podium of the 2007 Under 23 World Championships if not for a crash in the last 50 meters. Bovay is a promising climber who finished 6th at GP Tell in Switzerland.

Chilcott is hoping that the combination of Sayers & Cruz will be great instructional tools with Wyss and Kohler who are really “good fighters, good sprinters but who have done it more in the amateur style.”

Twenty-six year old South African Darren Lill joined the team this year, and his 8th place finish at the Tour of Missouri time trial caught Chilcott’s attention. “He’s a big talent, the thing that really interested me about him, what really got my attention for real was when his performance in the timetrial started coming together. Because now that makes him a realistic classification contender, he’s a promising rider, he’s fairly young too. “

New riders Brent Bookwalter and 23-year old Taylor Tolleson join returning riders Jackson Stewart, Scott Nydam, Nathan Miller, Ian McKissick, Jonathan Garcia and David Galvin to form the American contingent of the team with Cruz, Louder and Sayers.

Scott Nydam and Jackson Stewart - KOM jerseys; Photos by Ken Conley

The 28-year old Stewart started his second year with the team by winning the Cherry Pie Criterium in Napa, California, against an elite group of racers. A few days after his solo breakaway in the Tour of California, Stewart had to abandon the race with hypothermia after gobbling up all top mountain points on each of the three rated climbs.

On his second year as a professional, 31-year old Nydam won the King of the Mountains jersey at the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. “Nydam is a strong guy, strong constitution that can go out on the long bomb like that, he’s comfortable having his nose in the wind for hours on end.”

Bookwalter is coming back after severely breaking his leg, with the Merco Cycling Classic being his first race in 11 months. Chilcott was “very pleased to see him racing so close to the front and being out there, so it’s going to be a nice story to watch him come back because he’s a big talent, it’s going to be exciting to watch him.” Bookwalter and Miller were both members of the National team and raced in Belgium.

On their second year as professionals, 28-year old McKissick and 27-year old Garcia are both coming out of running, and both “have phenomenal numbers so they know how to train, they have great physiology, they have good physiques for cycling so their goal is to really learn how to race now.”

Bringing in older neo-professionals to the sport is somewhat of a specialty for Chilcott.

Fast tracking older neo-pros

Chilcott has instituted a methodology in his team to address the American culture where people often times go to college or do something else before they get into cycling. “That’s something that we’ve tried to learn and do on this team. Take athletic talent and fast track them to becoming proficient pros.”

He’s found that often he doesn’t have the option of only recruiting twenty-two year old neo-pros like other teams can do in Europe, “so we’ve tried to be proficient at understanding how to be successful with someone that’s twenty-five when they start and that model applies to Nydam, Garcia, McKissick, Galvin, even to some extent Stewart, although Jackson was considerably more experienced when he came to the team.”

The team strategy is to spends more time talking to the older neo-pros, get them access to races that are matched to their specific needs in terms of developing athletes, and take them to races where they have a chance of winning. “But it’s not sufficient to put them in one level of racing all year long, they need to be advancing within a season.”

To accomplish this fast tracking, events are handpicked, riders are matched up as roommates and as teammates on rosters for different races. “People we think are going to confer specific advice and understanding of situations with race dynamics in a way that’s educational.”

Photo by Ken Conley

Just rolling up his sleeves and getting the work done

Chilcott has been active in the bicycle racing community since 1977, was named to the Junior Men’s National Team in 1979 and 1980 and turned pro for Italy’s Selle Italia-Chinol team in 1982 and was one of the forerunners of Americans to ride among the professionals in Europe. He also became one of the first professional mountain bikers in 1987, and also has a PhD in microbiology.

Chilcott had not been around the sport very much for a period of time after stopping as an athlete, and started helping with Team Swift as a volunteer, working with the juniors, some of whom have come to the team such as Miller.

“I sought to create something that was the next step after Team Swift, like an elite team which is how this team started on his first year. But it quickly progressed and sort of floated to the top.”

Chilcott started the team and that “took some rolling up of the sleeves.” Working with his business partner, Charlie Livermore, and a number of advisors that came through the team to help the team stay on track, Chilcott was able to build up the team to a Pro Continental in three years.

“I’ve gotten the work done is really what I bring to the team, I’m the one that’s put the business together and I do have experience as a racer so that helps, and have the benefit of having been in a lot of different teams at different eras within the sport.”

As one of the first American riders to go to Europe as a professional, Chilcott had to distill down what he really needed to succeed. “I think that helps me, I keep things in perspective in terms of ranking priorities and importance of what riders to really succeed.”

The BMC team was successful in the first year in presenting an image that the sponsor liked and that led to larger opportunities in the second year and that cycle was repeated again. In the third year, Chilcott is starting on a new two-year contract that goes through the end of 2009 at even a higher level than the team had last year.

“So we’re advancing, and that will continue. All indications are that we’ll be able to continue to grow in the foreseeable future and expand our level and amount of races we do in Europe. I think we’re at the point in the US that we have access to all the races that we want to do here.”

2008 season and beyond

The focus of the team is on the big American stage races like Tour of California, Tour de Georgia, Tour of Missouri, the Colorado stage race, Tour of Utah and they plan to use the European races more as an avenue to build depth in people’s experience and to begin building up the team infrastructure in Switzerland.

“We’re establishing a base of operations in Switzerland which is not convenient this year because they are not in the E.U., but they will be next year so that will make that centralized location valuable, all of a sudden we don’t have custom issues and things. It’s a long range plan that I based my decisions on where and when we operate the team.”

The BMC Racing Team achieved the UCI Wildcard label awarded by the UCI, for the 2008 season, which offers the chance to be invited at ProTour races. The label paid off quickly as the team received the only Wildcard invitation to compete in the Tour of Romandie. They have also received an official invitation to compete in the prominent ASO race Critérium International.

These events suit the sporting level of the team, and for Chilcott suited the goals of the sponsors.
“We had a lot of invitations or inquiries as to whether or not we were interested, and we declined because we didn’t feel it suited the team to go to a lot of races just to say we lined up at that race.”

European races are carefully chosen so they fit the calendar, don’t conflict the big American events. “We are an American team and will remain an American team and we have to also support the American events.”

For Chilcott, when his long-term plan is successful, the results will be obvious from the inside but the team may not look that different from the outside. Given the current uncertainty with the Pro Tour, he is not certain that there is going to be any advantages to go to a higher administrative level than Pro Continental.

There’s a lot of finance, business, mechanical support that all contribute to the success of the team at the sport level. “They’re not very obvious when you’re at race day but you see cars and riders on bikes, but you don’t know how they got there, how easy it was for them but those are areas that will see a lot of change in the next few years.”

As part of their long-term plan, the team is committed to clean racing, and works together with the independent and respected ACE (Agency for Cycling Ethics), an international agency, to carry out blood and urine tests throughout the entire year.

The long-term goal can be simply stated. “I think the ideal position to be in would be to be a desired team, a sought-after team at the top level where we would choose the events that best suit the team and then progressively refine and strengthen all the aspects of the workings of the team.”

Photo c Lyne Lamoureux

BMC Racing Team 2008

Brent Bookwalter (USA) 23
Steve Bovay (Switzerland) 24
Tony Cruz (USA) 37
David Galvin (USA) 23
Jonathan Garcia (USA) 27
Martin Kohler (Switzerland) 23
Darren Lill (South Africa) 26
Jeff Louder (USA) 31
Ian McKissick, (USA) 28
Nathan Miller (USA) 23
Alex Moos, (Switzerland) 36
Scott Nydam, (USA) 31
Mike Sayers (USA) 38
Jackson Stewart, (USA) 28
Taylor Tolleson, (USA) 23
Danilo Wyss (Switzerland) 23

See also:

• BMC Racing Team - going up against the big guys at the Tour of California

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

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