The early season was a busy time for Bissell’s Head Mechanic Ben Oliver, known as BenO. In January, the team raced in the Tour de San Luis in Argentina followed by a  week long training camp which left him 10 days to get ready for the Amgen Tour of California working with the other team mechanic Jim Oliver.

“So it was just 10 days and we had some stuff show up late and I was building TT bikes that week and just kind of praying to the god of products.”

Every year, brand new equipment is received and bikes that fit each rider’s specification must be built. For the race in California, a total of 20 Pinarello Prince were built for the 8 riders on the roster.

“Every rider has two road bikes, a race bike and a home bike,  and fourteen time trial bikes in total. So for this race, there are 8 guys, 8 road bikes, 8 TT bikes and 4 spares.”

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Steve Sperling, head mechanic for Team Tibco, shows us Brooke Miller’s Stars and Stripes Look 595. Brooke rode the Stars and Stripes in competition for the first time at the 2nd annual Women’s Tour of California Crit. The Stars and Stripes is outfitted with the same equipment the rest of the team will be riding with the exception of the special paint job to commemorate Brooke Miller’s current status as the U.S Women’s Road Race Champion and U.S. Criterium Champion. Rumor is, that if there’s enough interest, LOOK Cycles USA might do a small run of replicas.

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Scott Struve of Cannondale has a special Super Six Hi-Mod in their booth located in the lifestyle festival. A very lightweight bike, it weighs in at just 10.1 pounds!

Adrian Montgomery of Scott Bicycles shows us Michael Roger’s Scott Addict SL team bike. Team Columbia-Highroad will have their bikes mostly outfitted with the normal Dura Ace 7900, with the exception of a few riders who will be using the new electronic version instead.

Doug Berner of Team Type 1 shows off a typical team bike. The team is sponsored by Orbea and will be riding the Opal again this year. The Orbea will come fully kitted with Dura Ace 7900, PRO stem, handlebar, and seatpost, as well as a Selle Italia Saddle. The coolest part on the bike… the custom TT1 Cateye computer!

Ben Coates is back to show us the Trek TTX 9.9 SSL, the time trialing bike of choice for Team Astana. Here we have Lance Armstrong’s TTX geared up with SRAM Red components, including a brand new to competition SRAM return shifting R2 shifter. The Tour of California will be it’s debut, also new to the Astana gear truck is the new Aeolus 9.0 wheelset, soon to be available as a set, the team will be riding new new wheel in the front.

Ben Oliver, head mechanic of the Bissell Pro Cycling Team, shows us current New Zealand Time Trialing Champ Jeremy Vennell’s Pinarello FM1. A “Fantastic” looking bike, it’s all black with white lettering to celebrate his New Zealand Champion status. The FM1 utilizes a 1k weave and a different layup schedule, but shares the same shapes and geometries as the Montello. The team will be riding a new 90mm profile front TT wheel from Easton, currently in prototype form.

Ian, head mechanic of BMC, is back to show us Alex Moos’ BMC Time Machine TT01 that he’ll be using at this year’s Tour of California. Built up using Campagnolo 10 speed Record (because Campy has yet to release 11 speed specific groups for TT purposes).

We caught up with Phil White before the Prologue in Sacramento and got the specs of the team’s TT rigs straight from the co-founder of Cervelo himself. Phil also spoke to us a little bit about the new team and what the goals are for the team this year, as well as when you’ll be able to find the new Cervelo P4 at your local bike shop.

Ian, Chief Mechanic of Team BMC, shows us the newest bike in the BMC arsenal of Swiss engineered bikes, the Roadmaster SLX01. This particular bike is comes with a custom paint job for the Swiss National Road Champion Markus Zberg, a strong contender for BMC at this year’s Amgen Tour of California.