Tour of the Gila Stage 1 - Tecos' Ladino and Value Act's Goldstein in the lead

Dirth in Tour of the Gila race reports. And the race report currently available is um sketchy, as the velonews report doesn't quite match the results.

In the pro men race, the Tecos Cycling Team put their stamp on the 94.1 miles Silver City-Mogollon road race stage putting in 2 riders on the podium with Columbian Gregorio Ladino Vega winning the stage putting in a gap of twenty-six seconds over his nearest rival, Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home), over the 2100 feet climb in the final 10 miles.

While the stage is shorter in distance, (73.1 miles), the pro women faced the same last 10 miles of climbing as the men. According to ValueAct's Sharon Allpress, "The shredding crosswinds made the race all that more interesting with people literally being blown over."

A break was formed that included riders from ValueAct, Tibco, Aarons, (and probably other teams...) and as with the men's race, the field caught the break at the base of the last climb, with ValueAct's Leah Goldstein winning the stage ahead of Kristin McGrath (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine).

On Thursday, stage 2, the Inner Loop Road Race, is an 80-mile loop with 5781 feet (77.9 mile and 5854 feet for the women) of climbing starting and ending at Fort Bayard.

The course not only includes three cat3 climbs but 3-mile Sapillo Descent, a very technical 1000+ feet drop which is one of the most dangerous areas in the Tour of the Gila.

Last year's stage was won by Tom Peterson (Slipstream-Chipotle) who is racing solo at this year's race. Rachel Heal (Tibco) finished second twice, in 2007 and 2006 in this stage where winds - crosswinds, headwinds - often play a factor.


Men's Top 10 Stage Results

1. Gregorio Ladino Vega (Tecos) 3:55:44
2. Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) +0:26
3. Bernardo Colex Tepoz (Tecos) +0:41
4. Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) +0:52
5. JR Grabinger (Successful Living) +1:03
6. Justin England (Toyota-United) +1:23
7. Tyler Wren (Colavita/Sutter Home) +1:23
8. Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) +1:23
9. Will Routley (Symmetrics) +1:32
10. Tom Zirbel (Bissell) +1:32

Men's Top 10 GC after Stage 1

1. Gregorio Ladino Vega (Tecos) 3:55:29
2. Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) +0:31
3. Bernardo Colex Tepoz (Tecos) +0:51
4. Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) +1:07
5. JR Grabinger (Successful Living) +1:18
6. Tyler Wren (Colavita/Sutter Home) +1:38
7. Justin England (Toyota-United) +1:38
8. Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) +1:43
9. Will Routley (Symmetrics) +1:47
10. Tom Zirbel (Bissell) +1:47

Men's Stage 1 Full Results and Men's GC after Stage 1

Women's Top 10 Stage 1 Results

1. Leah Goldstein (ValueAct) 3:45:18
2. Kristin McGrath (Colavita/Sutter Home) +0:28
3. Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) +0:55
4. Kristin Sanders (Aaron's) +1:31
5. Andrea Dvorak (Colavita/Sutter Home) +1:49
6. Kelly McDonard (Touchstone) +1:53
7. Marisa Asplund Owens (Cheerwine) +2:06
8. Leda Cox (America's Dairyland) + 2;13
9. Stacy Maple (Cheerwine) +2:29
10. Sharon Allpress (ValueAct) +3:03

Women's Top 10 GC after stage 1

1. Leah Goldstein (ValueAct) 3:45:03
2. Kristin McGrath (Colavita/Sutter Home) +0:33
3. Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) +0:55
4. Kristin Sanders (Aaron's) +1:46
5. Andrea Dvorak (Colavita/Sutter Home) +2:04
6. Kelly McDonard (Touchstone) +2:08
7. Marisa Asplund Owens (Cheerwine) +2:21
8. Leda Cox (America's Dairyland) + 2:28
9. Stacy Maple (Cheerwine) +2:44
10. Sharon Allpress (ValueAct) +3:18

Women's Stage 1 Full Results and Women's GC after Stage 1

Tour of the Gila Preview

One of the tougher stage races in North America, the Ben D. Altamirano Memorial Tour of the Gila kicks off tomorrow, with five days of racing, leg busting climbing, arrowing descents and often brutal winds around Silver City, in New Mexico.

For its 22nd edition, no major changes to the race except that the order of the stages where shuffled putting the ITT stage into slot three instead the first stage.

The stages. The race begins with the 94.1 miles (73.1 miles for the women) Silver City-Mogollon road race with a final 3 mile 1500 feet ascent with the rough road pitching up with grades of 19% at some points.

On Thursday, stage 2 is an 80-mile loop with 5781 feet (77.9 mile and 5854 feet) of climbing starting and ending at Fort Bayard. The course not only includes three cat3 climbs but 3-mile Sapillo Descent, a very technical 1000+ feet drop which is one of the most dangerous areas in the Tour of he Gila.

Friday is the Tyrone ITT where riders face two climbs in an out and back 16.2 mile course and 1000 feet of climbing.

Saturday's stage is finally a stage for the sprinters if they've survived all the climbing and time cuts, the Silver City Downtown Criterium, a 1.04 mile, four-corner rectangle with about 80 feet of climbing per lap.

The queen stage or in this case the monster stage is Sunday's Gila Monster road race, a 105.7-mile point-to-point road race with 9131 feet of climbing and 8252 feet of descending (71.8 mile with 5610 feet of climbing and 4714 feet of descending for the women). The men will tackle five categorized climbs including the 7-mile long, 1600 foot Copperas Vista climb of the Gila Cliff Dwelling to turn around and come back down on a dangerous descent with steep grade and blind corners.

The teams. Neither defending champion will be present, with Nathan O'Neill serving a suspension due to doping infraction and Mara Abbott racing in Europe, but the man to watch is Toyota-United' Chris Baldwin who finished second last year and won Gila in 2006. Backing Baldwin will be Chris Wherry; winner in 2002, Justin England and Ben Day, and maybe the secret weapon DS Scott Moninger who also won the race in 2004 and 2001. Other riders to watch include Redlands's 3rd place finisher, winner of Gila in 2005, 1998 and 1996 Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) who sat out Georgia to focus on Gila; Anthony Colby , 6th last year and Tyler Wren (Colavita-Sutter Home).

On the women's side, while none of the previous winners from the past ten years are returning, six of last year's top ten are returning. Women to watch include Amber Rais and Rachel Heal both of Tibco, the Cheerwine trio Anne Samplonius, Leigh Hobson, and Marisa Asplund-Owens and Leah Goldstein, winner of last year's Mt Hood Classic, now riding with Value Act and Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) .

Team roster available on bikereg.com

Next up, the NRC stage races

The NRC calendar heats up and teams have to decide which races to target.

After taking a break from the early California races, the NRC swings into its back to back (to back) stage races, for both men and women - the Ben D. Altamirano Memorial Tour of the Gila, in New Mexico on April 30 – May 4, the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas, on May 8-11 and then the Mt Hood Cycling Classic in Oregon, on May 13–18.

At the same time, three NRC-rated criteriums are held on the weekends, the Sunny King Crit in Alabama on May 3, and the Nalley Historic Roswell Criterium in Georgia on May 4, and the Bank of America Wilmington Grand Prix in Delaware on May 17.

And just to make logistics even more complicated for the pro teams, the U.S Air Force Cycling Classic, in Virgina, a race on the US Pro Tour calendar is scheduled for May 4.

Pretty expensive and truly impossible for a team to try and race all these events. Is the NRC worth it? More on that in a future post.

After 6 races in the men's calendar, the top 5 in the NRC standings are:

Men's Individual Standings
1. Santiago Botero (COL/Rock Racing) 286
2. Rory Sutherland (AUS/Health Net-Maxxis) 198
3. Chris Baldwin (Boulder, Colo./Toyota-United) 165
4. Burke Swindlehurst (Salt Lake City, Utah/Bissell) 147
5. Dominique Rollin (CAN/Toyota-United) 125

Men's Team Standings
1. Rock Racing 492
2. Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team 439
3. Health Net Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis 395
4. Colavita/Sutter Home Men's Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light 368
5. Successful Living Pro Cycling Team 340

After 5 races in the women's calendar, the top 5 in the NRC standings are:

Women's Individual Standings
1. Alex Wrubleski (CAN/Webcor) 302
2. Mara Abbott (Boulder, Colo./High Road) 255
3. Katharine Carroll (Sausalito, Calif./Aaron's) 224
4. Tiffany Cromwell (AUS/Colavita-Sutter Home) 209
5. Leigh Hobson (CAN/Cheerwine) 184

Women's Team Standings
1. High Road 593
2. Cheerwine Professional Cycling Team 588
3. Aaron's Cycling Team 455
4. Webcor Builders Women's Professional Cycling Team 454
5. Colavita/Sutter Home Women's Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light 417

Need more racing? The USA Crits Speedweek, 7 criteriums in 8 days in the Southeastern United States, is happening this week. Not part of the NRC calendar, these crits do offer some nice prize money and serious bragging rights for the riders.

Tour de Georgia - the good, the bad and the.... beautiful

the good
High Road of course, who executed perfectly. On stage 3, Greg Henderson won his first stage in a bunch sprint with his teammate Andre Greipel coming into second, grabbed a hold of the points jersey which he never let go and the yellow jersey. While the team had to relinquish the yellow jersey the next day, it came right back again with the great ride by Kanstantin Sivtsov on Brasstown Bald to snag the win. And then to cap it off, Greg Henderson won the last stage.

Slipstream-Chipotle. I won't go into the 'did they know about Sivtsov on not on Brasstown'? Either way, Trent Lowe showed great promise by sticking to Leipheimer's wheel after Astana had thrown everything they could to soften him and his team up, so much so that the 23-year old Lowe was isolated. Second on overall GC and best young rider jersey is no mean feat. The team also grabbed the Team Time Trial utilizing the strength of each rider to its best.

The domestic teams raced aggressively all week and mixed it up on every stage. The best aggressive jersey was awarded to a domestic rider almost every day (the second stage's jersey is debatable): BMC's Scott Nydam, Health Net-Maxxis' Rory Sutherland and Tim Johnson, Jittery Joe's Neil Shirley.

Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez came through once again to win the first stage and the first yellow jersey. The team sent out their man, Justin England, in a long breakaway to rest the team and force other teams to chase, therefore keeping the yellow jersey for two days.

Health Net-Maxxis' cheeky move to grab the KOM on the second stage by their sprinter Frank Pipp and keeping it until the first mountain stage was brilliant. And who knew Rory Sutherland could climb so well?

Bissell came into Georgia with a singular focus, the team time trial. When the results expected didn't happen due to multiple reasons, the team regrouped and came out swinging the very next day. The team were in every move until the right one went and a calculating Teddy King got the KOM points needed to get on the podium that day. And then sprinter Richard England came through and with his win, showed everyone that he deserved to be counted with the other fast men.

Team Type 1, on its first year as a professional team, finished third in the team overall classification with four riders in the final top 20 including Moises Aldape's sixth place finish on Brasstown Bald.

Symmetrics finally put a rider on the podium on the last stage, desperate to get media attention to try and save the team.

The great interviews conducted by Frankie Andreu and available on theBroadbandRacer. The wonderful photos and words by Ken Conley. Recaps and links provided by steephill.tv included video footage on the finishes.

the bad (or the not so good)
It's great that the race was freely available via wcsn.com for all to view and to enjoy, but the quality of the coverage left a lot to be desired at times. First the commentators - okay so I can understand to need to get a professional talking head who knew nothing about cycling, but please provide him with information about cycling, strategy and the riders instead of letting him fill air with inane comments.

Then there's the quality of the feed itself. On the first stage, the feed goes dead just before the finish so we miss the bunch sprint. Then on Brasstown Bald, after listening for hours to the commentators talking only about the Lowe-Leipheimer duel, the camera pans away in the last 500m and we missed their finish. Thank goodness we saw Sivtsov's attack and win.

I could go on, but instead here are some recommendations. Get someone to listen to race radio to know what is going on in the race so they can feed the information to the commentators. Get someone to research the riders in the break for the same reason. Send your camera people (and motorcycle drivers) to a race in Europe to learn or import one to the next race and take notes. Never, ever pan away from the finish. If a motorcycle breaks on one day, make sure it doesn't happen the next day.

and the... beautiful
All the riders that rode with their nose in the wind to protect their leaders, all the riders that jumped in long break to give an opportunity for their teammates to rest and then did it again the next day, all the riders that set up their sprinters bumping shoulders with the other teams, all the riders that went back and forth to fetch bottles from their team cars, all the riders that gave their wheels and bikes to their teammates, all the riders that crashed and finished the race with bruises, road rashes, cuts and all kinds of injuries, all the riders that crashed and couldn't finish due to injury, all the riders that improved their best performance but didn't get noticed by the media as they didn't crack the 'magic' top 10, all the riders that crossed the line after the podium ceremonies were completed .... I applaud you.

Tour de Georgia Stage 7 - It was all High Road today: stage win, yellow jersey and points jersey

	High Road's success continued in the seventh and final stage of the Tour de Georgia. Not only did the team successfully protect Kanstantin Sivtsov's yellow jersey, but in the final chaotic dash to the line, Greg Henderson got his second win of the race.
Photo by Ken Conley

As expected, the final stage, a 101km circuit in downtown Atlanta finished in a bunch sprint with the GC contenders and most riders just trying to stay safe from crashes and the numerous mechanical problems trying to avoid manhole covers, potholes, slick oil patches on the bumpy, rough and wet city streets.

After catching the break, the High Road-controlled field went into sprint mode, with sprinters and their teams swarming up and with chaos reigning at one km to go on the incline to the finish, Henderson emerged and crossed the line first in front of JJ Haedo (CSC) and Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics).

With no changes in GC, Kanstantin Sivtsov (High Road) won the overall, with Trent Lowe (Slipstream-Chipotle) in second, and Levi Leipheimer (Astana) in third place.

“It’s not mine, it’s Team High Road,” said Sitvsov about capturing his first victory in the U.S. “It is very good preparation for Giro (d’Italia).” Sitvsov, 25, who was the 2004 Under-23 World Champion and finished 32nd at the 2007 Tour de France, will race in the Giro d’Italia next month.

Early on the second lap of the 10-lap races, a break was formed which included Cam Evans and Jacob Erker (Symmetrics), Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner), Hilton Clarke and Justin England (Toyota-United), Aaron Olson (Bissell), Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing), Aaron Kemps (Astana), Christopher Jones (Team Type 1), Matthew Crane and Matt Cooke (Health Net-Maxxis), Darren Lill and Jonathan Garcia (BMC), Rhys Pollock (GE Trek-Marco Polo), Jared Barrilleaux (Jittery Joe's) and Tom Danielson (Slipstream-Chipotle).

Photo by Ken Conley

Unfortunately, as soon as the break was form, punctures hit and riders had to drop out of the break, with Lill, Kemps and many riders in the main field taking a big hit from the city roads.

According to BMC, teams suffered an estimated 40 punctures today, due primarily to a large patch of broken glass which littered a section of the course. “We had at least 7 flats ourselves,” BMC DS Gavin Chilcott explained. “And so many other teams had the same problem, I’m sure it had an effect on how the stage played out.”

High Road led by captain George Hincapie, stayed at the front of the peloton, making sure that the break never got more than 2 minutes gap and monitoring all activities.

With 40 kms and 4 laps to go, the break was now down to 9 riders and a gap of 55 seconds to the field. With two laps to go, the break still dangled out in front at a bit more than one minute from the High Road controlled field, and Lowe and Leipheimer staying close to Sivtsov 's wheel.

With one lap to go, the break stopped working together to prepare for the inevitable attacks before the finish. The first one to go was Evans marked by Danielson. At this point, Rock Racing came to the front of the field to assist with the chase to set up their sprinter Fast Freddie Rodriguez.

	The break was caught in the final kilometers to the uphill sprint, and Antonio Colom (Astana) and Bobby Julich (CSC) attacked but the field was just too fast and caught the duo with Henderson jumping early in the drag race to the finish.
Photo by Ken Conley

In a final tally, Bob Stapleton team's leaves the race with the overall GC winner in Sivtsov, three stage wins, delivered by Sivtsov's win on Brasstown Bald and twice by Henderson in bunch sprints, and the overall points winner in Henderson.

“Out team is all about trying to find the top young international talent, bringing them into a good environment, giving them good, experienced riders to work with and management, and then seeing what they can do. And Kasta (Kanstantin) really showed everyone that he’s a real force to be reckoned with in the sport,” said Team High Road owner Stapleton. “This is a great event (Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T). We look for chances to race some high caliber events in the U.S. Events like this are a big international draw. You had a lot of really good talent here. We’re happy to be a part of that.”

	Lowe retained his Best Young Rider lead, Jason McCartney won the overall KOM classication, Astana won the overall Team Classfication and Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) was awarded the overall Most Aggressive jersey.
Photo by Ken Conley

Tour de Georgia Stage 6 - High Road's Sivtsov surprises everyone to take the stage and the yellow jersey

While the contenders, Trent Lowe (Slipstream-Chipotle) and Levi Leipheimer (Astana) , were busy marking each other up Brasstown Bald, High Road's Kanstantin Sivtsov attacked in the final 500 meters to win the Queen Stage and take the yellow jersey by only four seconds going into the final stage.

“I dream for this day,” said 2004 under-23 World Champion Sivtsov, of winning his first stage in a U.S. “The last mountain is very hard, very steep and the last kilometers is very, very steep.”

Great strategy shown by High Road as they put a man in the break, in the chase group and kept the powder dry for Sivtsov in the main group.

Photo by Ken Conley

The riders started off the day under sunny skies arming themselves to face two climbs, a Cat 1 and Cat 2, before finishing up at the top of the the killer Brasstown Bald. With 17 riders all within 30 seconds of the leader, strategy was paramount in the day with each GC team hoping to put a man in the break so they wouldn't have to chase.

Multiple attempts were made until a break stuck after 24 kilometers and seven hardy riders went up the road.

The break consisted of Jason McCartney (CSC), Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United), Andrey Mizurov (Astana), Craig Lewis (High Road), Stephan Schreck (Gerolsteiner), Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe's), Svein Tuft (Symmetrics). The group worked together except for one, and managed to create a gap of almost three minutes on the run up to the first KOM, Hogpen Gap. Mizurov sat at the back of the break to do his job as Leipheimer's lieutenant, and just monitor the break.

The steepness and pace started to take their toll on the beak with 2 riders, Lewis and Schreck popping out in the back at 1 km to go to the KOM. McCartney sprinted to take the KOM points and waited for his break companions to tackle the second KOM.

The peloton was also feeling the heat under the high tempo set by the Slipstream team who missed the break, and attacks from other teams and the numbers were decreasing rapidly.

“The first climb separated the group and then on the second climb it dwindled even more,” said BMC's Scott Nydam. “On the descent of the first climb Botero and Rubiera were attacking, so it was pretty strung out the whole day.”

With 37 k to go, a 6-man group rolled away from the field to chase the 4-man break on the climb to the second KOM, Unicoi Gap. The group, consisting of José Luis Rubiera (Astana), Bradley McGee (CSC), Craig Lewis (High Road), Thomas Lövkvist (High Road), Stephan Schreck (Gerolsteiner), and Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) chased hard, so hard in fact that they lost 3 riders, Lewis, Lövkvist and Schreck on the climb up.

The break crested Unicoi with McCartney taking the KOM points with only 30 seconds ahead of the chasers, and the peloton further back at 1:40.

As soon the chasers caught the break, to create a group of 8 riders, Shirley attacked with 14 kms to go and opened up a small gap. But the grade of the climb was too much for him, and he was caught and passed by Rubiera, McGee and the charging lead group.

An isolated Lowe was glued to Leipheimer's wheel as the elite group raced up the climb.

At the four kilometer mark, only a few riders remained, including Sivtsov, Lowe, Leipheimer, Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing), Moises Aldape (Team Type 1) and Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis).

Then, there were only three, Lowe, Leipheimer and Sivtsov, with Lowe still sticking to Leipheimer's wheel.

With about 450 meters to go, Sivstov powered up the climb, with no reaction from the other two riders, opened up a gap and that was all she wrote. Lowe attacked Leiphemer in the final meters to get second place crossing the line 10 seconds behind, and Leipheimer third. (In a case of WTF, the streaming video feed chose to not show the duel to the line between Lowe and Leipheimer so we never saw the final attack by Lowe but I'm sure it was great).

“This is a very important race for my team,” explained the 25 year old Belorussianm Sivtsov. “I was waiting for this stage. George told me that it was very, very steep at the top and that I should wait to make one good attack. With three kilometres to go I felt good but I waited.”

	“Super talented,” said McCartney of Sivtsov. “You can tell in the bunch how guys are riding, they’re just light on the pedals, and he looked good the past couple days. I think Levi kind of underestimated him.”
Photo by Ken Conley

In strong showings, Sutherland finished fourth and four Team Type 1 riders finished in the top 20, including Aldape in sixth place.

“To have five guys come to the bottom of this climb together would have been great for a ProTour team,” an ecstatic Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said. “So I’m gushing right now. I’m so proud of these guys. They did a great job.”

	McCartney received the KOM jersey for the day and the overall as no KOM points will be awarded in the final stage. Lowe is still the leader in the Best Young Rider competition and Shirley was awarded the Most Aggressive.
Photo by Ken Conley

The final stage, Stage 7, is a stage for the sprinters, if they still have the legs after the brutal climbs of today. The 10-lap circuit race (101 km), in downtown Atlanta, will give sprinters their last three opportunities to win sprint points.

With only four seconds separating Sivtsov and Lowe and with time bonuses on the line at each sprint line and at the finish line, the GC could still be shuffled in tomorrow's stage. But it unlikely, as typically the GC contenders step back, and let the sprinters have a go at it, but you never know.

Tour de Georgia Stage 5 - Bissell's Richard England sweeps competition and Trent Lowe is in yellow

After his teammate Teddy King sucked up enough points to win the KOM jersey for the day... okay that was lame. But what wasn't lame was the Bissell team in today's longest stage in Georgia, a 214.7 kilometers stage with three Cat 3 climbs including a last tough kicker at the end with only 2 km to go followed by a fast downhill to the finish.

A group of 4 riders escaped the peloton and stayed away for the almost the next 160 kilometres opening up a gap of over 11 minutes before the field started to get interested in chasing. The break was finally caught in the climb of the final KOM by a decimated field, and Richard England attacked, and raced down to the finish line to win the stage.

	“I knew that if I was in first around the corner, even though there were guys with good legs behind me, I knew I was still going to have a chance on the podium,” said England. “I went around the corner and gave it everything I had to the finish line and ended up coming out on front.”
Photo by Ken Conley

After a flurry of attacks, the right composition was found and a break stuck after about one hour of racing. The GC contenders' teams were happy to let the four men as they basically decided to let tomorrow's stage, Brasstown Bald dictate the final winner of the Tour of Georgia.

	Let's take a closer look at the four men in the break. Teddy King (Bissell), Tim Johnson (Health Net-Maxxis), Valeriy Kobzarenko (Team Type 1) and Cam Evans (Symmetrics) all got tremendous airtime on the live streaming as only one camera motorcycle was working and stayed with the break.
Photo by Ken Conley

Canadian road Champion Cam Evans is coming off a win in the San Dimas stage race where he won by one second over Rock Racing's Oscar Sevilla. According to the Symmetrics' website, the 24-year old Evans is studying Human Kinetics and plans to pursue a career in sports medicine.

“I think all the guys are riding really well, so that's the good part. The downside is that a lot of the races we've had to fund out of our pockets. The morale on the team is still pretty good, it's helped that everyone is riding well. I rode well in San Dimas,” said Evans about the financial hurdles the team is facing. “I would definitely like to do a good ride in Georgia, then we'll kind of reevaluate a bit after that and then we'll hopefully go into Philly Week and Beauce with a good strong team.”

Three time Olympian and former Ukrainian road champion Valeriy Kobzarenko, known as Kobza, raced for the Navigators team starting in 2006, and hen the team folded at the end of last year, DS Ed Beamon brought him over to Team Type 1.

“We made a big effort to make sure that we brought some of the Navigators guys back, (Glen Chadwick) Chaddy, Kobza and (Ben) Brooks were three guys that have traditionally been that been, for the last 3 years, kind of the backbone guys for the Navigators program, it was good to be able to bring those guys across.” said Beamon about bringing Navigators' riders over to Team Type 1, including 31-year old Kobzarenko.

Teddy King is no stranger to long breakaways as he was part of the brutal weather five-hour break during Stage 4 of the Tour of California. The 25 year old, KOM winner at the San Dimas stage race, tried to initiate multiple breaks in today's stage, and has been with the Bissell (or Priority Health) team for the past three years.

“I am going to try to help out as much as possible.” said King, blog author, when asked about his goals for 2008 with Bissell earlier this year.

Current US Cyclocross champion Tim Johnson is road captain for the Health Net-Maxxis squad is no stranger to long breakaways, as he was a member of the group that put in over 20 minutes gap in Stage 3 of the Tour de Georgia in 2007. After a full road season on 2007, Johnson jumped into the cyclocross season culminating with his 'cross National championship, 8 years after his first victory in that race.

“It felt great, it was nice to have it happen after so many years, to win again this year made m realize that I’ve been around for awhile, it’s been 8 years between wins.” said Johnson about winning the cyclocross championship again. “I think it was (sweeter the second time around) for sure because the first time was a big surprise and this time, definitely something that I wanted, it was good.”

After racing cyclocross races in Europe, Johnson went straight to the Tour of California and then finally took a break with the Tour of Georgia as his first race back.

Back to the race. The four men worked well together and stayed clear for more than four hours only being caught on the final climb with 2k to go. At that point, the goal was to be the first one across the top and positioned well for the downhill into the finish. Just before the catch, Johnson tried a last minute attack but the field reduced to 20 riders was charging too fast, but he did pick up the Most Aggressive jersey for his troubles.

Richard England was the first one to cross the line ahead of Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) and George Hincapie (High Road).

After today’s action, Trent Lowe (Slipstream-Chipotle) moved to first place in the GC. Slipstream, which won Thursday’s Team Time Trial, has riders rounding out the G.C. Top 3 with David Zabriskie in second and Christian Vande Velde in third. Levi Leiphiemer and Chris Horner of Astana moved up to fourth and fifth, respectively, in the G.C.

As expected, stage Six, the “Queen Stage”, will decide the overall winner of the Tour de Georgia, as the last stage will be a fight for the sprinters and the points jersey. The riders will face an intense 142km odyssey through the Appalachian Mountains of north Georgia, encountering 2 climbs earning KOM points at Hogpen and Unicoi gaps before the stage finish at the highest spot in Georgia (4,783 feet), Brasstown Bald Mountain.

This should be a fight in the GC between Astana led by Levi Leipheimer and Slipstream.'s Trent Lowe and Christian Vande Velde. Hoping to take advantage of the duel will be Hincapie and Bobby Julich (CSC), and Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing). Others, such as BMC's Scott Nydam and Darren Lill and Jittery Joe's Neil Shirley will be trying the glory of the stage win on Brasstown and looking to move up in GC.

Also up for graps is the KOM jersey, with Team Type 1 and Symmetrics hoping to get in the early break to try and wrap up the jersey.

All in all, it should be a great day for the spectators.

The man behind the wheel - Bissell's DS Glen Mitchell

The Bissell Pro Cycling Team executed perfectly in today's stage at the Tour de Georgia.

Stage Five was the Tour’s longest stage at 133.4 miles (214.7 kilometers), the first of two mountain stages with three Cat 3 climbs with the last one at only 4 miles to go launching the riders in a dive bomb to the finish. All the teams would try to get their man in a break today, and Bissell after an unlucky and disappointing TTT yesterday was active in all moves.

Their man, Teddy King initiated the first move at 3 miles into the race and when that was brought back, tried to be in every move after that.

Finally, 34 miles into the stage, a group of 4 riders escaped the peloton, and included Teddy King again. Along with Tim Johnson (Health Net-Maxxis), Valeriy Kobzarenko (Team Type 1) and Cam Evans (Symmetrics), the break stayed away for the almost the next 100 miles opening up a gap of over 11 minutes before the field started to get interested in chasing. The break was finally caught in the climb of the final KOM, and Richard England attacked, and raced down to the finish line to win the stage. To cap off the stage win, King picked up the KOM jersey. A perfect day for Bissell.

The man orchestrating the strategy for the Bissell Pro Cycling Team is New Zealander Glen Mitchell. The 2 time Road National Champion, Mitchell retired as a pro rider in 2006 and took on the role of DS for then Priority-Health the following year.

“It's just a nice group of guys who I actually really like hanging out with and I think that's also been brought together by Glen Mitchell who is a former teammate of mine. He's a great tactician, really attentive to details of the race in general and I knew he could apply that to being a manager. Obviously I think he's really well acquitted himself in his job. I think we fit together well and I race well under his style” said Ben Jacques-Maynes about the team and Mitchell earlier this season.

I had a chance to talk to Glen earlier this season to get his thoughts on the new year and his goals for the year.

LL: Looking back at 2007, how satisfied are you with the year?
Glen: Very satisfied, you know, the goals that we set ourself at the beginning of the year with the expectations of the riders that we had, we definitely exceeded that. Obviously Ben Jacques-Maynes has a breakout year, I've known him for a while, I've been on the same teams and I've seen him grow and you know there was potential there and we had the opportunity to bring him on the team and we jumped at that. And he's sort of fulfilled every expectation and more of what we thought . The other guys have risen to the occasion as well, definitely looking back, there's obviously a couple of little things that you'd like to change here or there, but it was a very good year for us.

LL: What is it that you wanted to change or that you are changing this year?
Glen: This year, our total sponsor changed, we have a little bit more money to work with so we can build the team, you know the aim is to keep this team building every year, to build it up another step. In doing that we've gone from a roster of 12 riders to 14, we've brought in riders like Aaron Olson and Burke Swindlehurst. I've brought in Jeremy Vennell as well who's a good tour rider, good in the time trials, good in the hill climbs, and he's been racing in Europe for the last 4 years as well. You know 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.

LL: What are the goals for the season?
Glen: The overall goal is to win races. After that, it's definitely the big tours, we want to feature in the tours. 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. We've been successful at Nature Valley, Cascade, Mt Hood and those other tours and really that's the way that I've looked at the team, predominantly our racing is going to be more tour racing and the big one day races. Obviously, there are a lot of criteriums in America, but our resources are more geared towards the tour so that's why you know I bring in Burke, I bring in Aaron, they complement Ben really well. Ben gets excited about tour racing, these other guys get excited about tour racing so I'm trying to build the best tour squad that I can at the moment with the resources I have.

LL: What are the strengths of the team?
Glen: It's been a growing process, the team has been around, in some form or another with the management system it has, it's been around 5 years. It moved from an elite team 5 years ago and then it slowly moved up and became a professional team which is when I got involved and was racing with them, and then stepping up and up. Definitely a lot of strong teams in North America, from a few years ago where there was only one or two dominant teams I think now it's spread more evenly.

Glen: I look at some of the rosters of the other teams and I can see that they are gearing up for more of sprint finishes or criteriums. Some of the other teams have got a mix between criterium and tour racing guys. We're probably more geared towards the tours and the bigger one day races. Obviously, Aaron Olson, two-time Giro finish, I mean huge ... brings a lot of ability to the team and a little bit of leadership. Ben has already shown that he can be a leader of the team. Burke's a true professional, so you had those guys together, then they can work off each other. Ben was definitely the go-to guy this past season, he will be the go-to guy this coming season but there will be less pressure now that we have Aaron, we have Jeremy, we have Richard England, we have these other guys that can easily step in and it gives us more options in the races. Instead of all the teams looking at what's Ben going to do, if Aaron gets away what are they going to about Aaron, he can ride off the front for 5 hours by himself. Burke goes on a hill climb, it's just not a one man show anymore, we definitely have a lot more options and that's probably our biggest asset going into this year.

So far so good for the team.

The team was aggressive at the Tour of California, with Tom Zirbel showcasing his strength in the last stage, driving a solo attack in the driving rain. Riders, such as Scott Zwizanski, Ben Jacues-Maynes and Graham Howard won many of the preparation races to the domestic season, and Burke Swindlehurst finished third overall in the Redlands Bicycle Classic, the first race of the NRC calendar.

Tour de Georgia Stage 4 - Slipstream just goes harder and wins the TTT and Hendy keeps the yellow

	Slipstream-Chipotle 'just went harder' (in honor of their teammate Timmy Duggan ) won the first even Team Time Trial (TTT) at the Tour de Georgia crossing the line with the minimum number of riders. Astana finished second at 4 seconds back with High Road in third a further 2 seconds back.
Photo by Ken Conley

High Road's Greg Henderson keeps his yellow jersey for another day with his teammate Andre Greipel in second place. With their team win today, Dave Zabriskie moves to third overall followed by Tom Danielson and Christian Vande Velde.

Teams approached the 2.5 mile, 12 turn hilly course that started off with 14 percent kicker on the first climb with different tactics.

	For High Road, it was about keeping the team together for as long as possible, they started off with 7 guys (as Devine didn't start due to sickness), kept a relatively steady speed and only lost 1 guy before crossing the line, always protecting yellow jersey Henderson.
Photo by Ken Conley

Astana chose to blast out of the gate, setting a blistering first lap of over 31 miles/hr, But the pace was too high for the team, and riders dropped immediately, started off with Schär, then Kireyev, and Mizurov. Diesel engine Leipheimer had to slow down to make sure that enough guys were still there at the finish line, and Astana crossed the line with 5 riders still together out of the 8 starters.

Photo by Ken Conley

Slipstream, with 7 riders, went out fast and did the third fastest time in the first lap, keeping the pressure up using riders up when needed. When Tyler Farrar could no longer follow the pace, he was jettisoned even if he was second in the GC going into the stage, all in the pursuit of the stage win. And it worked.

“The hill was hard but a nice part of the course for me. I actually used it to recover,” said Danielson, one of the very few riders that appreciated the hill. “Plus it added some disruption to the course, so teams really needed to ride smart to keep it together for all four laps.

Team CSC finished fourth at 13 seconds and Toyota-United in fifth place. There seems to be some confusion as to the Toyota-United result, CyclingNews has them in 5th place at 23 seconds back, and the Tour de Georgia site has them in 9th place. Since no major incident was shown during the live coverage, I chose to go with the 5th place result until official results are finally posted.

This leaves BMC in 6th place at 31 seconds back, which is a good result for the team.

“Overall, I am really very pleased with how the guys rode,” BMC Directeur Sportif Gavin Chilcott said after all the teams had completed their rides. “The laps unfolded as planned, and though we may have been able to go 10 seconds faster due to little 1-2 second mistakes here and there, there were no technical mistakes and everyone was riding strongly.”

Shows the speed for each lap for a few select teams.

Yeah, that's what happens when stuck in meetings.






Looking around at some of the other teams, through the blogosphere.

Bissell was hit with bad luck when their ace TT Tom Zirbel dropped his chain going up the hill on the third lap. He was never able to rejoin the team, and the team finished 41 seconds behind Slipstream.

Rock Racing showed that having good individual time trialists does not necessarily mean good TTT results. They also lost riders quickly, and faded to the end finishing in 10th place. Oscar Sevilla did longer pulls and showed his great form, but Botero was surprisingly one of the dropped riders.

Symmetrics started off conservatively, too conservatively, and even though they were, with Team Type 1, the only teams to finish with all their riders, their 11th place was a so so result for the team.

"It was the first that we were doing a team timetrial together", said Symmetrics' François Parisien. "We started a bit slow, with 10 seconds off the average time and we increased 5 seconds per lap. We rode a bit too conservatively, and we all agree that we could have had a better time. Since we are in the average time, no one is very happy but no one is too disappointed"

Team Type 1 was happy with their results finishing in 12th place, 56 seconds slower than Slipstream. The team learned from the misfortune of others, as described on their blog:

"We made sure we changed into the little ring before we reached the climb because of the danger of dropping your chain," Glen Chadwick said. "We also had Fabio (Calabria) not in the rotation on the middle laps because he's not the best guy to draft off of. But then on the last lap he actually put the hurt on us."

So how tough was it?

"There were a few times my vision went blurry and my head tilted sideways." said Health Net-Maxxis' Matt Cooke on GamsJams.net. And that about sums up the TTT.

Tomorrow a new Tour de Georgia starts when the climbers and GC contenders come out and play. Stage Five is the Tour’s longest stage at 133.4 miles (214.7 kilometers) and is the first of two mountain stages, and includes 3 KOMs and 1 intermediate sprint to add even more powder to the mix. Teams have to ask themselves if they want to conserve their potential GC spot or risk it all.

Expect Symmetrics to try and blow it apart tomorrow. Teams will be jockeying for the break again - riders such as Jelly Belly's Aaron Tuckerman, CSC's Inigo Cuesta or Jason McCartney, Team Type 1's Glen Chadwick. Health Net-Maxxis' Tim Johnson and BMC opportunists to try and initiate the early break. Jittery Joe's Neil Shirley has stated that he wants the KOM jersey so he has to go early and try and collect the points. Bissell will want to forget their disappointing TTT and will try to join the frey. Toyota-United's Ben Day and Chris Baldwin have been very quiet, are they looking for top 10 GC or for a stage win? With 4 guys in the top 10, Zabriskie, Vande Velde, Danielson and Lowe, who will Slipstream send up the road to force Astana to chase? Or will they wait to put everything on the line on Brasstown Bald?

On a side note, check out The Broadband Racer for great interviews conducted by Frankie Andreu.

A conversation with François Parisien

François Parisien started racing his bike 14 years ago, and at the age of 19, he decided to head to Europe, leaving Canada in order to live out the dream and try to make it to the pro ranks. He raced for many years with French amateur squads and won the Canadian Road National Championship in 2005. After a stellar season in 2005, he joined TIAA-CREF. But the year 2007, with Slipstream was marred with knee problems and Parisien was forced to cut short his season.

In 2008, the 25-year old returned to the North American racing scene with a new team Symmetrics and is healthy and hungry to race again.

He showed good form at the Redlands Classic race in March where he was in third place overall going into the final stage, the Sunset Road. The team knew that it was possible that he could jump up into second, so 10km into the race, with speed ramping up, teammates Eric Wolhberg and Andrew Pinfold started to lead out Parisien for a time bonus sprint, when a rider moved right in on the leadout and took Parisien and other riders out. 40 riders were caught up in or behind the crash.

It took 2 minutes for Parisien to get going again as the team waited. The Symmetrics Team chased hard but they could not get back to the leading group which was setting a fast tempo, minutes ahead. A disappointed Parisien did not finish the race.

François Parisien leading his team at Redlands

I caught up with François before the start of the Tour of Georgia for a quick update.

LL: How is the form and the (left) knee?
FP: Better and better, good preparation for the next months. With the current team situation, everyone is trying to do the best possible results to attract new sponsors and I think we are in the right direction.

My knee problems are fixed. I still need to pay attention so that it doesn't return because it's still fresh but I think I overcame it and I can now train normally.

LL: What is your goal for the year?
FP: My goal this year is to go to the Olympic Games, and after that, see what I want to do next year, if I stay with this team or if I change teams.

LL: After many years in Europe, and now here in North America, what would you like to do next year?
FP: 6 years in Europe. Next year, I would like to stay in North America for another year, and then if I have the opportunity to return to Europe, I'll go back. It really depends on what happens this year. Basically it all rests on this year. I miss Europe, but here there is a new motivation, new races, new riders, and courses that suit my style very well.

The Symmetrics team with Parisien are trying for a good showing in Georgia. I wish them luck.

Tour de Georgia Stage 3 - Hendy makes it to the top step

	A great day for High Road. Kim Kirchen won the Fleche Wallone in Europe, and Greg Henderson won the third stage and took over the GC lead in the Tour de Georgia. Adding the cherry on top, teammate Greipel finished second on the stage.
Photo by Ken Conley

After finishing second in yesterday's bunch sprint, High Road's Greg Henderson was a bit disappointed:

"At 150m to go I thought I was going to pull it off but I couldn’t get into the 11 cog,” he explained. I don’t don’t really want to blame my gears thought. At least I proved I have good speed and I’ve got another opportunity to go for it tomorrow.”

And he went for it again today. After catching the obligatory break, team High Road took control of the race in the final kilometres moving the whole team to the front coming into the final two circuits.

George Hincapie wound up the lead out, with Andre Geipel as the final man for Henderson.

“We have one of the strongest teams in the race. Right at the finish there I had Kansta Siutsou and George Hincapie looking after me pretty well. I don’t think we left the top five for the last three laps and then coming up 500 to go George just nailed it and Greipel actually dived down inside me on the last corner. I was like ‘that looks good, three High Road.’ And it was just a drag race between Greipel and I to the line. And, yeah I was lucky enough to get it." said Henderson.

Henderson crossed the line, with Greipel on his wheel, and Slipstream-Chipotle's Tyler Farrar coming in third. Farrar also picked up the Best Young Rider jersey for his ride.

Again, finding the right composition for the break was a difficult balancing act, as teams were jostling to send their riders into the 'perfect' break for the 108 mile stage. Four riders finally managed to escape, Scott Zwizanski (Bissell), Moises Aldape (Team Type 1), Frank Pipp (Health Net-Maxxis) and yesterday Most Aggressive Rider Rhys Pollock (Trek-Marco Polo) and gapped the field by almost five minutes before being reeled back.

The leg-busting rollers took a toll on the breakaway companions, as described by Aldape

"It was a good composition in the beginning, but then guys started to get tired," Aldape said. "The Bissell guy missed a pull and started to get dropped. I was taking second in the sprints hoping I would make it to the finish and make it in a good position, but when it was under two minutes I started to miss pulls knowing that the peloton was going hard."

The four-man breakaway was swallowed up by the field charging into the two finishing circuits in Gainesville.

Health Net-Maxxis' Rory Sutherland launched an attack, went flat out like a lizard drink'n and gained about 10 seconds on the field. Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) chased, caught and passed Sutherland with a charging peloton that quickly gobbled the two riders up.

	High Road team came to the front in a fast and furious sprint to put their two riders on the podium.
Photo by Ken Conley

Yellow Jersey Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) was not able to follow the accelerations in the final circuits, and dropped off the back of the field.

The stage results brought about a shuffle in the GC classification going into tomorrow's TTT, with Farrar moving up to second place, 9 seconds behing Henderson, and JJ Haedo (CSC) is now in third place.

While crossing a bridge over the Broad River at mile 40, riders Corey Collier (Health Net-Maxxis) Ben Day (Toyota-United) and Tim Duggan (Slipstream Chipotle) were involved in a crash. Duggan was taken to an area hospital where he will remain for the night. Day and Collier were able to finish the stage. According to the team website, Duggan is in stable condition and undergoing further tests. I wish him all the best.

Tomorrow's Team Time Trial (TTT) should start to identify the contenders. The TTT is raced on the Road Atlanta course in Braselton, GA, a hilly 2.5mile, 12 turn race track with two-minute gaps separating each team as they race a total of 10 miles.

Expect the known timetrialists to shine such as CSC, Astana and Slipstream. It will be very interesting to see if Rock Racing, with some strong time trial talent, can function well as a team in their first team time trial. Also, can BMC repeat their Giro del Fruili team time trial victory? And Bissell also has some very strong time trialists with Tom Zirbel, Ben Jacques-Maynes and Jeremy Vennell.

Tour de Geogia Stage 2 - JJ Haedo pips it on the line

	CSC's JJ Haedo pipped Greg Henderson and yellow jersey Ivan Dominguez to win the bunch sprint in the second stage in the Tour de Georgia. Haedo is recovering from a broken wrist and riding with a taped up hand. He took it gingerly in yesterday's stage, but felt good today and let'er rip.
Photo by Ken Conley

“I decided in the last 5 K (kilometers) that I would know if I wanted to be in the sprint. I just wanted to be safe, so I managed to stay in the front and I found Ivan’s (Dominguez) wheel; so I think it was the perfect lead out,” said Haedo,

The expected flurry attacks were off the front at the beginning of the 117 mile stage but none of the teams like the composition so all potential breaks were reeled in, until Toyota-United's Justin England just rolled off the front and found himself, to his surprise, in a solo break.

The Toyota-United's team strategy for the stage was to try and put a man in any move so that the team, as the yellow jersey owner, wouldn't have to chase and could rest as much as possible before the expected bunch sprint. But a solo move was not in the cards.

“Our Directors told us at last nights meeting to make sure we are in all the early moves to protect Ivan’s yellow jersey. I was in a breakaway dangling off the front with Dominique Rollin and a few others and when I took my pull, I went a little harder than usual and the guy behind me let a gap open and the next thing I knew, I had 5 seconds, 10 seconds, a minute and I was gone” said Justin England.

And gone he was, for the next 20 miles until he was joined by Jelly Belly's Brice Mead and Rhys Pollock (GE Trek - Marco Polo). The field was quite happy to let the trio dangle in front, given them a gap of over 7 minutes before catching them with about 11 miles to go. Last ditch attacks were tried but the peloton would have none of it as they streamed through the 2 finishing circuits in Augusta, Georgia.

Toyota-United set up their train perfectly, but the headwind was just a bit too much for Dominguez, and the fastest man that day, JJ Haedo won the sprint, with High Road's Henderson coming into second.

At 150m to go I thought I was going to pull it off but I couldn’t get into the 11 cog,” Henderson explained. I don’t don’t really want to blame my gears thought. At least I proved I have good speed and I’ve got another opportunity to go for it tomorrow.”

No changes in the yellow jersey with Dominguez still the leader going into the third stage.

"It was still an excellent day for our team. Ivan on the podium for a second day in a row and keeping the yellow jersey, a job well done", said Toyota-United's Dominique Rollin.

The cheeky move of the day has to go to Health Net-Maxxis's Frank Pipp, a sprinter who took the only KOM points on a cat 4 climb. With no KOM points for the next 2 stages, he and his team will get some publicity. All the teams knew and tried for the KOM points including BMC, but Pipp went early and had teammate (and big guy) Rory Sutherland sweeping his wheel. Nice.

The lame move of the day has to be the race organization that awarded the Most Aggressive jersey to Pollock instead of giving it to the obvious choice England. When cyclingnews asked Medalist Jim Birrell about it, he did admit that the fact that GE was a sponsor of the race might have impacted the decision. How can they expect the race to be taken seriously when calls like this - or remember the 9km neutralized finish in the Santa Rosa stage of Tour of California 2007 - lame.

A mass pile up with 700m to go caused some chaos, but no major injuries to any riders except some road rash. Jittery Joe's Cody Stevenson gives an up close and personal view of the road rash in this youtube video.

	Training partners and friends Leipheimer and Nydam at the start
Photo by Ken Conley

"I think, you know coming especially from Boulder, just kind of knowing what the top pros do out there being in group ride and stuff, just Levi’s level of efficiency is just incredible, there’s not a moment that he’s not doing something intentional in his training ride. So it’s being productive and using your time wisely, it’s huge. There’s nobody in Boulder and as far as I know in cycling, training this hard. A year ago, I’d come back from most of the rides just completely shattered probably because I wouldn’t ride within my limit, which I didn’t even know what it was. But having more foresight, and taking a better approach at things, I’ve definitely been able to gauge my efforts a lot more wisely, not go too deep and go into a hole trying to say on Levi’s wheel during the climbs and stuff. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from him is his approach towards training and that if you get your shit together you can train that much more effectively." said Nydam about what he learned from training with Leipheimer.

Dominguez also leads the Sprint Competition with 25 points over second place Greg Henderson who has 23 points. Toyota-United also leads the Team Classification category over Team High Road and thirteen other teams.

Tomorrow’s stage 3 is a rolling course totaling 108.2 miles from Washington to Gainesville. This is the last stage for the opportunistic attacks to try and get a win before the TTT and the climbing stages.

Interview: Eric Wohlberg - gnarly Canadian in Georgia

Canadian Eric Wohlberg is a three-time Olympian and has been racing for fifteen years for many well-known teams, including Magic Cuts, Seldane, Shaklee, Sierra Nevada and the powerhouse Saturn team for three years. He joined the all Canadian continental Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team in 2004.

As part of his numerous accomplishments, the 43-year old Wohlberg won the Canadian Individual Time trial National Championships eight times in a row, and many stage wins all over the world. Stories about Wohlberg’s toughness abound. For example, he raced with a broken wrist and finished a respectable 25th in the time trial wearing a cast on his left hand in the 2003 World Championship.

Last year, the Symmetrics team won both the individual and team competition at the UCI America Tour. The chase for the valuable UCI points all over North and South America (and earning Canada an additional Olympic berth) was exhausting and the Symmetrics team went into 2008 with specific focus of helping its riders make it to the Olympics.

It’s now fairly well known that the Symmetrics team is currently undergoing financial trouble due to sponsors pulling out putting the team in jeopardy. While the team was snubbed by the Amgen Tour of California, they were invited and are racing in the Tour of Georgia.

"Back in 1991 was when I started with back with Magic Cuts, I don’t even count anymore. I still love what I do, at the end of the day, you take the good, you take the bad, for me still the good still outweighs the bad."

I caught up with Wohlberg before the start of the Tour de Georgia to get his thoughts on the current team situation and its impact on the team. He was coming back from he called a ‘big ride’. A 200 kilometer ride, with a 34 km climb to the top of Mt Hamilton, around Livermore, push a bit in the valley and then back to his home in the Bay Area.

Read complete interview on RoadBikeReview.com

The art of the sprint with Henk Vogels

Earlier this year during the Tour of California, I had a chance to talk with Toyota-United's Henk Vogels about the art of the sprint. The black magic known as the leadout train was demonstrated in today's Tour de Georgia stage where Vogels, and Dominique Rollin led out Ivan Dominguez with Hilton Clarke sweeping behind Ivan.

LL: Has your role on the team changed, with all these new, young sprinters coming in?
Henk Vogels: Really, just trying to mesh the guys, I’m the lead out guy, I’m the guy that makes the decision on the road when it has to be made straight away because I’ve been doing it for so long, these guys all know what to do I don’t really need to tell them, but if they are decisions that need to be made, I’m kind of the directeur on the road. So just trying to get the boys organized and as well I can win some bike races as well, so yeah that’s mainly my role.

LL: How does a good lead out work?
HV: The main thing, if you have a gun sprinter, there are two different ways of working it, there are like the seven guys working for the sprinter riding the last 5 to 10 k at the front to keep him our of trouble or you have the sprinter who is someone like Robbie McEwen or Ivan Dominguez who prefers just to sit in with the other sprinters and just use his raw speed and use the peloton. Ivan, last year, he won most of his races when he had the whole team riding for him in the finale, but in races like this (Tour of California) when you have the team of Rabobank with Freire, High Road with Cavendish, and Quick Step with Boonen, it doesn’t really much sense to get the whole team going on the front for our sprinter. So, my role is really to see how Ivan’s going and whether he wants to have the leadout which we don’t know yet, we’ll see. We’ll sit down and talk about that tonight and get him in the right position with between 800 and 600 meters to go and go from there. But it’s really kind of an art to get that person in the right position whether that be on Tom Boonen’s wheel or whether he wants to head out early so it’s a lot of communication in the race so the main thing is to be in position to leadout or just put in position so he can go out with the other sprinters.

LL: How do you communicate the ‘when and where’ to go?
HV: Radios or normally I just scream. I’ll be screaming at the guys, go, stop or stay here, go now, it’s pretty easy, it’s not that hard.

LL: A lot of people can’t do it, so how do you learn this stuff?
HV: 2 Tour de Frances, 2 Giros, 2 Vueltas, 15 years in the pro peloton…. it’s experience.

LL: You’ve been in teams with Robbie McEwen, Steels, Van Petegem, how different are each of these sprinters?
HV: Every sprinter is so different, Cipollini was just raw power with an incredible eight-man lead out, whereas McEwen only needed one or two guys just to surf around the outside and put him on the sprinters’ wheels and then he’d go from there because he was the fastest, no where near by any means the strongest so it’s just a matter of who that sprinter is and you just have to rely on how he feels and how he wants to do his sprint.

LL: Do you have to adapt your style depending on the sprinter?
HV: Yes, absolutely, like I said, you’re either doing him full scale leadout where you’re hitting out with him on your wheel with 650 to go, or whether he just wants to be put strategically onto another sprinter so it all depends on the day too, he may not want the whole team to have that responsibility and just follow the sprinters and see how it goes so it’s up to him.

LL: So do you prefer either way?
HV: No. whatever.

LL: I’ve noticed that the team doesn’t typically sweep behind Ivan, why is that?
HV: This year, I think we are probably going to try to do that at some stage but, the perfect guy for that is Hilton Clarke, he’s fantastic for that, you’ll never get rid of him, he’s very, very good, but yeah, I mean I think you’re just wasting somebody you know, I like the idea of it, I’d rather have someone in front of him with a little bit more punch just in case something happens.

LL: What do you need to have to be the last leadout guy?
HV: You have to have that strength to keep him there and that explosivity. I’m not really the kind of an explosive guy but I can hold high speed for quite a long time, where Domniguez is 5k an hour faster than me so, you know that’s perfect to have somewhere there to keep him there for as long as he can so. I’m more of a stronger sprinter not really the quickest guy.

LL: Do you see yourself as a mentor on the team, to try and teach what you know?
HV: I try and take the younger guys a little bit, teach them some etiquette on the bike and off the bike, what I mean by etiquette is the way we do things, especially the young guys like Dom Rollin who’s got such a huge future, young Jonny Clarke who’s also new on the team. Most of the other guys know exactly what to do, they’ve been pros for long enough. There’s a couple of new guys, like I said, Jonny and Dominique, they need some direction, I think Dominique Rollin can win a lot more races in his career so he’s just incredibly strong so if you can harness that… yeah I mean, I don’t say it out loud but I kind of try and help them.

His comments about Rollin and Clarke were dead on. And Vogels does scream out to his boys the when and where as we all hear from the sidelines.

Tour de Georgia Stage 1 - Dominguez does it again

	Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez won the sprint in the first stage of the Tour de Georgia 2008. This makes Toyota-United the only domestic team to win a stage in every American stage race (California, Georgia and Missouri).
Photo by Ken Conley

With 1000 meters to go, team captain and tough guy, Henk Vogels led the charge with Dominique Rollin, Dominguez and Hilton Clarke on his wheel to set up the sprint. Vogels moved off the front with 500 meters to go putting Rollin in charge of the last lead out, and Dominguez blew past him with 200 meters to go to take the win,

“With 50 meters to go, I looked under my arm and saw I had the same gap as when I passed everyone earlier and realized then I was the fastest and no one was going to pass me.” said Dominguez after the race.

When I last talked with Dominguez, after the second stage in Redlands, he wasn't satisfied with his form:

"Form is not good, not like last year. I'm still trying to get it, it's not there yet but I'm trying. I'm riding here but I'm not a hundred percent, still suffering in some places but I'm not worried about it. I'm trying to get the most strength I can, I like to be racing." said Dominguez after finishing third in the Redlands crit.

I guess his form is back. Jelly Belly's Sanderson and Robert Förster (Gerolsteiner) rounded off the podium.

The first attack was launched by Thor (Bissell's Tom Zirbel) to get the ball rolling, but it was short-lived. A very interesting but brief 13-man break was created and included Slipstream's Tom Danielson which opened up questions on Danielson's role in Georgia. Danielson is returning from weeks of rehabilitation following his shoulder injury, surgery and herniated disk, and Georgia is only his second race back after Redlands. Danielson is a free agent to jump on any opportunity that arises and is not the GC leader for the team, Vande Velde is. The good news is that Danielson was able to read the break and jump in when the time came.

At about mid-way through the short 70.4 mile stage, a break finally stuck which included BMC breakaway artist Scott Nydam - from the BMC report:

"It was just another case of being in the right place at the right time,” Nydam said after the stage. “Daren Lill and I were protected in the pack while the other guys on the team were working to cover the moves,” Nydam described, “after about 40 miles things calmed down and Mike Sayers told me to keep my head up and look for the next moves to be more meaningful.” Sayers road wisdom paid off.

The 5-man break was reeled in by the sprinters' teams with less than 10 miles to go. Teams were jostling to put their sprinters and leadout men into position, with Dominguez winning the battle at the line.

Dominguez will wear the yellow jersey in tomorrow's stage, the 116.9mi rolling course from Statesboro to Augusta. Will Toyota-United defend the leaders jersey or are we going to be 'treated' to another break that gains over 20 minutes to the field, and basically settles the GC? Just like happened in the second stage of the Tour of Missouri when Dominguez had the leader's jersey. The organizers and the fans hope not.

In other good news. Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United), in his first race back after knee problems, was very active in the intermerdiate sprints. Time will tell if he is fully recovered.

For his work off the front, Scott Nydam gets, again, the most aggressive jersey; Photo by Ken Conley

Tour de Georgia - looking at the teams

Well, the Tour de Georgia starts today, and unfortunately I can't make it this year, but that won't stop me from giving my opinions on the race. The course is very different to prevent last year's results when a break went up the road, the field stopped chasing, and the GC was limited to the riders in the break. Bad for the organization.

Let's look at some of the teams.

First off, Astana did not bring last year's winner Jani Brajkovic (why?). The team is built around Levi Leipheimer to help deliver the overall GC win, as they did at Tour of California. This could be a weakness if they miss the right break.

The biggest competitor to Astana in the GC race will be Rock Racing in their last minute invitation to the race (I guess money does talk). Strong squad led by Botero and Sevilla, coming off a decisive win at Redlands. Their biggest weakness could be their inexperienced DS Mariano Friedick. However, Tyler Hamilton seemed to be giving directions at Redlands and could be the major factor in this race.

Team CSC led by Bobby Julich seems built around stage wins more than overall GC contention, with fast man JJ Haedo in the mix, and climber Inigo Cuesta for Brasstown Bald. Look for this team to jump on any opportunity.

High Road has named former Swedish road and time trial champion Thomas Lovkvist as their GC contender, with Kiwi Greg Henderson looking for sprint wins.

Local favorite Jittery Joe's led by an on form Neil Shirley is looking for high GC placing. His confidence is up after finishing 3rd in last year's US Pro, and wants to do well in front of their home crowd. Watch Australian power sprinter Jonathan Cantwell who might surprise a few people.

Slipstream/Chipotle wants to win one of the big American stage races. Last year's second place finisher Christian Vande Velde has a strong behind him including big motor Danny Pate. Tommy Danielson wants to show the world that he is fully recovered from his back problems and is targeting his favorite stage, Brasstown Bald, for his comeback.

BMC squad will again by aggressive and try to go in breaks. Tour of California's KOM winner, and last year's 6th place finisher Scott Nydam is also looking to improve his GC finish.

Bissell led by Ben Jacques-Maynes and TT specialist Tom Zirbel want to put their stamp on stage four, the Team time trial. Scott Zwizanski who's been flying in local races could be a surprise.

Toyota-United is betting on its fast men to win stages led by Ivan Dominguez and Tour of California revelation Dominique Rollin. Ivan Stevic could be a factor if he has fully recovered from his knee problems, as this will be his first race of 2008. Health Net-Maxxis will also be looking for stage wins led by Australian Rory Sutherland, winner of the 2007 NRC classification.

The other domestic teams, Team Type 1 and Jelly Belly will be aggressive and opportunistic to get into breaks, especially break away artists Glen Alan Chadwick of Team Type 1.

Facing major budget issues, Canadian Symmetrics team wants to shine to pull in new sponsors. Francois Parisien showed great form in Redlands, and bad luck of being behind crash took him off the podium. The riders will be extremely aggressive with Chris Meier and tough man Eric Wohlberg jumping on every move.

Disappointed in the organization for not having more domestic riders in the pre-race Press Conference. Two riders from Rock Racing but no BMC riders after they animated Tour of California, very disappointing.

Sea Otter Men's NRC Circuit Race - Successful Living takes charge and never lets go

The 3rd race of the Men's NRC Calendar was held Saturday during the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA. Again this year the weather was a factor in the race, last year the riders faced raiun and deluge of water with a river running down the corkscrew. This year it was howling winds, so much so that the riders had the pedal down the corkscrew as the headwinds were so strong.

But that didn't stop the Successful Living team from taking charge of the race. Before the start, they were a marked team along with Colavita/Sutter Home, not only as the defending team, but as still looking for their first NRC win of the season. Especially as this was the last race in the NRC calendar in California for the next months, the headquarter state of their sponsor, the pressure was on.

Successful Living's masked rider (Alessandro Bazzana), JR Grabinger and Brad White

The attacks started from the get go, with Successful Living making sure that they were in every move. An early two-man break of Jonny Sundt (KBS) and Brad White (Succesful Living) went up the road for a few laps, but were gobbled up by the charging field. As soon as that happened, the boys in blue led off with a solo attack, this time it was Brian Jensen. White bridged up to him, and David Clinger (Rock Racing) led the chase with JR Grabinger (Successful Living) on his wheel. The four men formed a break and were off, never to be seen again by the field.

Clinger thought that the break would be caught and told his teammates to wait in the peloton and be ready to launch counter attacks. But the field never organized itself, and numerous attacks and counter attacks only managed to shatter it in multiple pieces, with a lead chase group containing KBS, Health Net, Colavita riders and last year's winner Dan Ramsey now riding for Time.

The four-man break worked well together after some discussion with everyone rolling through even Clinger, but he did 'softer' pulls.

"In the beginning, when there was two guys off, I put it a big effort to get to them and one guy was sitting on my wheel, right when I got to them, that guy kind of sped up, made a little attack and that was the only time they really made an aggressive move. After that, I rolled through really lightly, and told them that if everybody didn't work, at first they wanted one guy to sit on and they wanted me to roll though, and I said if he doesn't work, then I can't work, so everybody started rolling through, we took one lap." said Clinger.

The gap only increased to the two chase groups who joined together and sat up after a while. Behind them, the field was just going through the motions, so much so, that the break lapped the chase groups once, and the field twice before the finish.

Coming into the finish lap, the four men were together at the finish of the climb, and the Successful Living trio set up the sprint.

"Once we got over the climb, I had stopped pulling through for the breakaway, Brian and Brad rotated a few more times, Brad was designated to be the first leadout guy, Brian the second, and so when we got to the last few corners, Brad picked it up, and Brian with the last two hundred meters to go, took off, I tried to stay in his draft and came around in the last seconds." said an extremely happy Grabinger after the race.

It looked like they boxed in Clinger in the finish straight.

"I guess with the crosswinds, it's obvious that it's the best place to sprint through, have a guy protected, come through draft side in the crosswinds so, yeah that was the plan." answered Grabinger when asked if they boxed in Clinger.

I was surprised to see Rory Sutherland line up at the start as he is scheduled to race in Georgia. Health Net DS Mike Tamayo explained that Sea Otter is an important race to their sponsor who are also based in California. Rory, along with Mike and Kirk O'Bee were flying out via the redeye to Georgia immediately after the race. O'Bee is a last minute replacement for Phil Zajicek, as the UCI never responded to the TUE request that Health Net sent in weeks ago. So the team had to spend extra money at the last minute because the UCI messed up.

More photos in the Sea Otter Men's NRC Circuit Race gallery

Downhill Practice - full flight

No mud today at Sea Otter, just dry and dusty. Under sunny skies, the downhillers showed off their moves in the morning practice session.

More photos from the Downhill practice Photo Gallery

Sea Otter

In the middle of the cornucopia of (hopefully) mud, mountain bikers, single speeders, and overall party atmosphere of Sea Otter, an NRC-rated circuit race is being held this coming Saturday.

The circuit course is raced on the Laguna-Seca International raceway where each 2.25-mile loop includes a 300ft climb with a corkscrew S descent. The women do 22 laps for a total of 81km, and the men, 31 laps giving 114km.

Last year's race was done under stormy, windy and rainy conditions. So bad even, that the women's race was canceled after 12 laps and no winner was declared.

While the big boys are readying for the Tour de Georgia, it is the occasion for smaller teams, or the young squads of more established teams to get their hands on an NRC win. While there are issues with the NRC calendar and point systems (more on that in a future post), getting NRC points is still very important to showcase a team and get invitations to the bigger races like California or Missouri.

“We didn’t get California, or Georgia, so Missouri is our big one. So we’re aiming to win a bunch of NRC at the beginning of the year so we can be included in those races at the end of the year.” said Ryan Yee, rider manager of Successful Living.

Successful Living's Curtis Gunn loves the power course of Sea Otter and is hoping for a win.

However winning races or placing well is not a sure fire bet of getting invitations. Colavita/Sutter Home, has placed a man on the podium of almost all (all but one) oso far this year. But they didn't get invited to Georgia, as I think they should have, so the team is bringing a full squad to Sea Otter.

Last year's winner Dan Ramsey should be returning with a new team, Time Pro Cycling run by Eric Saunders. Other teams present will be Rubicon and Bay Area's stalwarts Cal Giant, both hoping to gain an NRC win.

On the women's side, a lot of teams are still looking for that elusive first win of the season, so we should see a great battle on the road. However, quite a few of the strong riders are in Europe hunting for UCI points to qualify for the Olympics.

The everlasting Tina Pic, winner of the 2006 and 2005 races, is returning with her Colavita/Sutter Home team. Expect Proman, Tibco, Value Act, Webcor, Cheerwine to try and win this baby.

Let's hear it for mud, downhillers and all the other fun folks that populate Sea Otter for a weekend.

And then there's beer.

1989 World Championship in Chambery, France

Listen carefully to the names. Steve Bauer, Laurent Fignon, Pedro Delgado and Gianni Bugno, Greg Lemond. A lesson in cycling history, found in the youtube attic by Cycling Weekly



For many, Greg Lemond is only a name bandied about in the press covering the numerous doping scandals in the past few years. And the mere mention of his name is enough to polarize a conversation in cycling groups.

But before all that, Greg Lemond won races, prestigious races. He was the first American to win the Tour de France in 1986. After taking two years to recover from a serious hunting accident, he came back and won the race again, in back to back years, 1989 and 1990. To cap off his 1989 comeback, Lemond won the 1989 Worlds in one of the toughest course under pouring rain.

And then read this essay from Kevin Couch, a former elite level cyclist:

This essay attempts to convey the emotion, the pain, the ecstasy—in essence, the craft—of cycling, by accurately recreating the 1989 World Cycling Championships in Chamberey, France. One or two of the names may be wrong, and the author makes his apologies for any discrepancies. With all the elements of a great race—from the heroics of the hometown favorite and the strategies employed by the various teams to the absolute talent displayed by a seemingly out-of-it Lemond, rising from despair to deny his defeat and capture the rainbow jersey from opponents—it is, in my opinion, one of the epic races of all time.

And remember Greg Lemond the cyclist.

Dear Michael

So you got into the Tour de Georgia, I wish I could celebrate with you but I just don't see how your participation is good for the sport of cycling.

You see, Michael, I love this sport. I love the emotion of the riders fighting to get their last grasp of air, the elegance of the climber dancing on the pedals, the always moving sinuous peloton, the cockiness of the sprinters, the hope of a last minute suicide attack, the organization of a leadout train, the echelon trying to fight the wind, the unsung domestique working for the team, the loneliness of a breakaway., the man and machine versus cobbles and weather in the Belgian classics,.... I love it all.

This beautiful sport is being dragged through the mud by dopers, liars and cheats. Add to that, the petty infighting amongst organizations that claim to want the best for the sport.

So please explain to me how your particular approach is helping out? Your maneuvers to turn everything into a publicity stunt is certainly great for your bottom line but making yourself (in)famous is not helping the sport. The little stunt with your three riders did not resonate well with the other riders, as stated by Fabian Cancellara:

“When you have problems you shouldn't be at the start of a race. When you love the bike you have to understand that. We've had too many problems already and we don't need anymore like that. We need good cycling, clean cycling and nice cycling. There were so many people at the finish in Santa Rosa and we don't need to see people at the side of the road protesting and shouting EPO at us. Cycling is the most controlled sport in the world and sometimes some people think they can still flick people but we hope we can follow the right road.”

Then, after this behavior causes problems and makes your presence indesirable with the race organizers:

“Their performance at the Amgen Tour of California did not resonate well,” Birrell said.

You start legal actions to force your inclusion in a race. Again, how is this good for the sport?

So Michael, you say that you are passionate about the sport, prove it. Stop making this about you and your money, and start making it about the race and the riders. And then I will be happy to celebrate your inclusion in the races.

PS. repeating that you are cool does not make you cool.

I guess I wasn't too boring that day

I always wonder if the riders find my questions boring, if they get tired of answering the same questions at the end of a race. There is no way that I can see everything that happens during a race, and even if I did, I'd rather get the riders' view of it as they were in the middle of the action.

So, got to say, that it was nice to see Ben Day smiling while answering my questions after the Redlands prologue, from Toyota-United site. (Of course, now I wish that it had been a good hair day)

Photo ©Kathleen Poulos

Baldwin's bike change or fun with Photoshop

After crashing, Chris Baldwin had to endure 2 bike changes and I caught one (on the wrong side of the road), at the KOM. After some photoshop magic, we see that Baldwin did his second bike change, calmly and managed to stay in the main field.

Redlands Stage 3

Rock Racing did it. They controlled the stage from start to finish, with a little help from the Colombian Caico team, and kept the leader jersey's in the hands of Santiago Botero. (Race Report).

The tough Sunset loop stage was made even tougher by multiple crashes including one on the first time up sunset, on the first lap, which involved about 30 riders. The pace was so high, that the riders could not catch up to the main field once back up. Francois Parisien took about 2 minutes to recover from the crash, and even with the full power of his Symmetrics team time trailing, he could not catch up. Quite a bitter blow for the team. Same for Ben Day, who had Henk Vogels and Ivan Dominguez to pace his back, but they abandoned on different laps when it was obvious it wouldn't work.

Breaks were established for a few laps, but under the Rock Racing (and Caico) impetus, the 30-man (or so) field was all together coming into the finishing circuit in downtown Redlands. Same circuit as yesterday's crit, so well known to all. BMC tried to control but Colavita, who had managed to have most of their riders in the field, came to the front with one lap to go and set up a perfect lead out train for Alejandro Borrajo. Behind him, some argy bargy between Tony Cruz and Rory Sutherland to try and move up.

In the final GC, Chris Baldwin finished second (again) and Burke Swindlehurst in third. Got to say, that both Chris and Burke are two of the easiest guys to get quotes from after a stage, they are always professional in providing info about what happened.

Note to self, do not rely on the official race vehicle to get to Sunset loop, for the second year in a row, the media waited for over 30 minutes before the van showed up... and then we had to leave 3 laps before the last sunset loop lap, so we missed a lot of the action.

Redlands Stage 2

Fast and furious crit in downtown Redlands in front of a big local crowd. Always fun. A 4-man break got away early in the race and was never caught even with the Toyota-United train rolling full speed to try and catch them. Team Type 1's bad luck continued with Shawn Milne, part of the break, crashing on the last corner of the last lap and breaking his wrist. Sucks. His crash also took out Successful Living's Curtis Gunn. BMC's Jeff Louder won the sprint afead of Colavita's Luis Araman as the last two members of the break.

The Toyota team started chasing with about 10 laps to go, and used up all their guys to try and get Ivan Dominguez into position, with Vogels yelling out instructions to his guys. Came close but didn't work.

With no changes in GC, the last stage, the dreaded Sunset Loop should bring fireworks.

Redlands Stage 1

Redlands Stage 1 was a new stage in Beaumont and most men seemed to be expecting a bunch sprint finish and an easier stage that previous year's Oak Glen Road Race. They couldn't have been more wrong. The pace was high from the start, and riders were being dropped on the first lap of the 5 laps circuit.

I spent most of the race in the Team Type 1 car getting acquainted with this new time, and listening to race radio from way back in the caravan passed riders shelled out left and right. Team Type 1 lost 2 riders with Ben Brooks and Phil Southerland both abandoning early on due to injuries.

The pace really never slowed down. As expected, a break was finally created in the second lap, with an interesting composition. Strangely, the Health Net team didn't seem really interested in chasing them down, and the 5 men, especially under the impetus of Santiago Botero, managed to get a gap of 5 minutes. At that point, Health Net with the help of BMC, Jittery Joe's and KBS started chasing but it was too late. (Race Report).

Botero, the strongest in the break, just rolled away from the others in the climb on the last lap and easily won the stage, taking all the jerseys. Of course, he had to do that stupid 'horn' sigh when crossing the finish line. You know, if you have to work at being cool, you just ain't cool.

Also in the break, and now in contention for GC were Francois Parisien, Chris Baldwin, and Burke Swindlehurst.

There is no way that Rock Racing want another fiasco on their hands like San Dimas, where they lost the stage race on the last day by 1 seconds, so I'm expecting them to fight tooth and nail to control everything til the end. The San Dimas winner Cam Evans and his Symmetrics team will be throwing everything they can to try and move Parisien up as they basically have nothing to lose and must get results to try and attract sponsors and get their guys selected for the Olympics.

Neil Shirley interview

I remember watching Neil Shirley of the Jittery Joe's team at the USPro Road Race podium where he finished third, behind Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie. Amid the hoopla and chaos surrounding Levi, Neil was very quiet, beaming with an intense, inner joy.

You could tell that he was starting to understand the significance of his result.

Since then, I've wanted to interview him and it finally happened a few weeks ago, timed with the start of the NRC season and the upcoming Tour de Georgia race so important to his team Jittery Joe's which is based in that state.

As expected, Neil was gracious and passionate about cycling but unexpectedly, Neil is a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. How can you not like this guy?

Neil Shirley - making sure that every ride has a purpose and that every day counts

Redlands Prologue

The Redlands Classic started with off with the difficult 5km prologue under gray skies. While walking around and saying hi to the women, High Road's Kim Anderson told me that Mara was flying. And she was right. Mara Abbott won the prologue with the enigmatics Kat Carroll (Aarons) in second, and the amazing Kim in third. (Read race report on RoadBikeReview).


The men were ready to finally get the NRC season started, and all the teams came out guns firing.

Unfortunately, the race commissaires decided to change the measuring rules for BB to bar ends, so the tall guys, like Henk Vogels, Tom Zirbel and Reid Mumford, were left scrambling.

These were the same bikes and same measurements used at Tour of California and other races. Made no freakin sense.


Rory Sutherland took the honors with Dominique Rollin and Ben Day right behind him. I was surprised to see Dominique place so high but as he said, he was surprised as big guy Svein Tuft won it last year. (Race report on RoadBikeReview). I can't wait to see what else Dominique Rollin can do this year, as I have been following his career for many yers in the Quebec press.

With 6 guys in the top 15, Toyota-United should be hitting up a somewhat weak Health Net in tomorrow's stage. On the women's side, High Road is looking forwards to attacks from all the teams.

Redlands Preview

photo galleries from 2007

The kickoff to the NRC season for the domestic men is just two days with the Redlands Bicycle Classic, a 4-day stage race. Teams have been ramping up their fitness through the March races which culminated in the San Dimas race where Rock Racing came out with all guns blasting. Even with a substantial number of riders in the Rock Racing and Team Rock present, it didn't work out, and Symmetrics' Cam Evans took the win.

On the women's side, Redlands is the third race in the NRC calendar currently led by Tibco's Brooke Miller in the individual standings and Cheerwine in the teams competition. With the two-time defending champion Amber Neben racing in Europe, as is Brooke Miller and a few of the other top domestic women, the race is wide open. Team High Road dominated quite a few of the earlier races, especially San Dimas, but all the teams will be gunning for the win. Fun, fun, fun.

Of note, Redlands is entirely run by volunteers and it's been this way since the start of this race, 24 years ago.

This year, Redlands includes a modification to the stages with the replacement of the Oak Glen road race with a new circuit race.

Looking at the men (somebody has to)
Andy Bajadali (aka the Baj) will counting on his new team Kelly Benefit/Medifast to defend his title, and he is going to have his work cut out for him after taking a quick look at the startlist (which can always change). We can expect fireworks with Symmetrics team riding like possessed men (or riders looking for contracts), Rock Racing looking for a big win and all the other teams hungry for NRC wins early in the season.

The riders in contention for GC are Bissell's Ben Jacques-Maynes, Jittery Joe's Neil Shirley, Rock Racing's Oscar Sevilla, Toyota-United's Chris Baldwin, Health Net-Maxxis' Rory Sutherland.

Quite a few sprinters will be hunting for stages. In the mix are, Rock Racing's Fast Freddie and Kayle Leogrande, Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez and Dominique Rollin, Health Net-Maxxis' Karl Menzies, KBS' Keven Lacombe and Alex Candelario, BMC's Tony Cruz. Successful Living is without Charles Dionne who broke his elbow at Sequoia a few weekends ago, but will be counting on Cody O'Reilly and teammates.

Riders that I'm curious to see what they can do this year, starting with Redlands: Jittery Joes' Jon Cantwell, Team Type 1's Chris Jones, Jelly Belly's Aaron Tuckerman, Symmetrics' Francois Parisien, KBS' David Veilleux, Bissell's Jeremy Vennell, and BMC's Brent Bookwalter. Add to the list Cal Giant Berry's Andy Jacques-Maynes who is returning from a horrific injury and says that he wants to go for it this year. This is by no means an exhaustive list ....

The stages. The prologue is a short but uphill 5km time trial with the finish at the top of 207 meter hill. (course map and profile). Quite a few riders to watch, Bissell's Ben Jacques-Maynes, Colavita's Anthony Colby, Toyota-United's Chris Baldwin, Health Net-Maxxis's Sutherland, BMC's Jeff Louder, Rock Racing's Oscar Sevilla, and KBS' Reid Mumford.

Stage 1 is brand new, a 5 lap of a 27.6 km circuit providing 138 km total with 3 rated climbs in each lap. Breakaway artists will try their hand, such as Successful Living's Alessandro Bazzana, Team Type 1's Ben Brooks, Slipstream boys, Symmetric's Cam Evans and Andrew Randell, Bissell's Teddy King, Rock's Mike Creed and of course the BMC boys, the experts at breakaways this year.

Stage 2 is the fast and furious 90-minute downtown criterium with 5 sprinter competitions and time bonuses. Last year's winner Rory Sutherland will have his hands full with the sprinters ready to come out and play. Leadout trains will collide - Successful Living, Colavita/Sutter Home, Toyota-United, Kelly Benefit/Medifast and Cal Giant Berry all vying to put their guy in front.

Stage 3, the last stage, is the dreaded Sunset Road race, 146.5 km of pain, with 5 climber competitions and two sprinter points on the line. Last year, Scott Moninger's team could not defend the leader's jersey when they could not catch a successful breakaway, and the Baj won the overall and the points jersey.

Focusing on the women
High Road crushed the competition at San Dimas by not only putting their riders in all 3 positions on the podium led by the amazing Kim Anderson, but by winning all three stages. This is the first race where the full Webcor team led by Christine Thornburg will be present, combined with the full force of the Aaron's, Value Act, Tibco and always aggressive Vanderkitten teams, it will be a battle to the end. And lets not forget the Cheerwine team led by winningest active pro rider, Laura Van Gilder.

In contention for GC. Second-place finisher last year, High Road's Mara Abbott will certainly be someone to watch for overall GC, as his her teammate Anderson. Aaron's climbing ace Felicia Gomez who wants to represent Canada in the Olympics, and took time off her job (as a professor) to focus on cycling and only cycling this year. Value Act's Leah Goldstein, who last year pretty much singlehandedly defended her yellow jersey at Mt Hood, and who trains officers for the Israel Army. Cheerwine's Leigh Hobson, Webcor's Thornburg, Tibco's Amber Rais and Rachel Heal and Vanderkitten's Liz Hatch will all be hoping to place.

On the sprinters front, you have to start with Van Gilder. Include Aaron's Kat Carroll, High Road's Emilia Fahlin and you have a fast finish.

Riders that I'm curious to see what they can do this year, starting with Redlands: Value Act's Martina Patella and Taitt Satto, Aaron's Kat Carroll, Webcor's Alex Wrubleski and Vanderkitten's Flavia Oliveira.... Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list ....

The stages. The women race on the same course, just shorter.

The prologue is a the same short but uphill 5km time trial with the finish at the top of 207 meter hill. (course map and profile). Last year it was won by Amber Neben with Olympian Christine Thornburg in second place.

In Stage 1, the women race 4 laps of th 27.6 km circuit adding up to 110 kms total with 3 rated climbs in each lap.

Stage 2 is the fast and furious 60-minute downtown criterium with 5 sprinter competitions and time bonuses. Laura Van Gilder finished second last year and third the year before so is hoping to get on the top step.

Stage 3 is the dreaded Sunset Road race, 105.7 km of pain, with 5 climber competitions and two sprinter points on the line. Kim Anderson won the stage last year, and we can expect High Road to give it all this year.

Rosters and Stage Course Maps and Profiles (pdf)

• Men's Team Roster
• Women's Team Roster
• Prologue
• Stage 1
• Stage 2
• Stage 3