THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Toyota-United readies for 2007
Sporting a modified team logo, a new bike sponsor and four new riders, the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team presented its 2007 roster to the media Thursday in Agoura Hills, California.
The team introduced four marquee additions to its roster — Australians Henk Vogels and Caleb Manion, Irishman Mark Scanlon and American Burke Swindlehurst. Both Vogels and Scanlon come from ProTour teams — Vogels from Davitamon-Lotto and Scanlon from Ag2r. Gone are Argentinean sprinter J.J. Haedo, to CSC, and all-rounder Tony Cruz, who returned to Discovery Channel.
Returning riders include 2005 USPRO champion Chris Wherry, Cuban sprinter Ivan Dominguez, two-time national time-trial champion Chris Baldwin, two-time Serbian national road champion Ivan Stevic, top climber Justin England and time-trial specialist Heath Blackgrove, who took a close second to Julian Dean at the New Zealand national road championship two weeks ago.
“Last year was a dream season, the culmination of a 12-year dream of mine to create this team,” said team owner Sean Tucker. “We won 55 races, half of all the races we entered, with 24 NRC wins, and we hope to better that in 2007.”
With strength across the board — sprinting, climbing and time trials — Dutch team director Harm Jansen took Tucker’s optimism a step further. “We’ve got a team that can win every race we enter in 2007,” Jansen said. “Of course that’s not realistic, but we hope to win every race we enter. We’re capable of it.”
Also new to Toyota-United is co-team director Kirk Willett. A former professional rider, whose resume includes more than 100 wins, Willett retired from racing in 2000. After a stint directing the Mercury Development Team, he served as team director at Prime Alliance from 2001 to 2003. He has spent the past few years attending the University of Oregon, graduating with a degree in science and will return to school to pursue his medical degree in the fall. Willett fills the void left behind when former team director Frankie Andreu was fired last July.
“Harm called me up last summer and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Willett said. “I’ve been itching to come back to the sport somehow, and this was the perfect opportunity.”
Vogels and Wherry, both winners of the USPRO Championship in Philadelphia, will serve as team captains. It’s a reunion for the two close friends who also rode as teammates at Mercury and Navigators Insurance. In Vogels the team has a former Australian road champion and two-time top-10 finisher at Paris-Roubaix. After five seasons spent racing in North America, Vogels spent 2005 and 2006 at Davitamon-Lotto, serving as leadout man for Robbie McEwen at the Giro d’Italia and riding for Peter Van Petegem in the classics.
“I love racing in America,” Vogels said. “And since I left, the U.S. scene has really gone international. Last year at the Tour de Georgia I saw how professionally the team was run, and I started talking with Sean. And I know a lot of these guys. I’ve ridden with Kirk and Harm, as well as Wherry and Baldwin and Swindlehurst. I know Caleb and Sean [Sullivan] from Australia, and I know Scanlon from racing in Europe. From what I can tell about the rest of the guys, this team has great chemistry.”
After four years at Ag2r, Scanlon, the 1998 world junior road champion and a two-time Irish national champion, was ready for a change. Scanlon contacted compatriots David O’Loughlin and Ciaran Power at Navigators Insurance, who suggested he get in touch with Jansen. Though Scanlon has never raced in the U.S., he said he knew it was what he wanted, claiming that years spent racing at the ProTour level, sometimes as a leadout man for Jaan Kirsipuu at Ag2r, had taken a toll.
“I’d just had enough racing in Europe,” Scanlon said. “On the ProTour it’s getting more difficult to get a good contract. I wanted to be on a training program that suited myself better. There’s less racing over here, less volume of racing. I just needed a change, really.”
Sullivan, Vogels and Scanlon will serve as lead-out men for Dominguez, the team’s top sprinter, who was overshadowed by Haedo in 2006 but still emerged as the overall winner at the USA Crits series in April. A California resident, Dominguez would dearly love to win a stage of the Amgen Tour of California.
“I’ll just take it race by race and see how it goes,” Dominguez said, looking to deflect any expectations. “But I like to win races.”
For hilly courses and stage races, the team will look to Wherry, Baldwin, England and Swindlehurst, who finished fourth at the hilly national road championship in Greenville last September. Aspiring GC riders Manion and Stevic will be the team’s “wildcards,” Jansen said. “It’s good to have all-arounders, because you can’t plan for everything.”
Unlike last year, when Wherry, the U.S. national champion, and Stevic, the Serbian national champion, wore more red than blue in the team’s distinctive red, white and blue kits, in 2007 Stevic will sport an all-white, true national champion’s kit. Both riders battled with illness last year, but returned to the team camp feeling fit and ready to race.
Listed on the team’s roster is 2000 world junior cross-country Walker Ferguson. Ferguson wasn’t at the team presentation, however, and is not expected to compete often for Toyota-United. Ferguson’s racing age (25), however, appealed to the continental team, which is bound by UCI requirements to have a majority of riders under 28 years old.
Toyota-United will begin its season at the Amgen Tour of California, where its history as a team got off on the right foot last year after Haedo took two stage wins. For 2007 the UCI continental team will focus on the two national road-racing series, the USA Cycling ProTour and the National Racing Calendar, which on occasion will require having two separate teams. Tucker said the team’s goals are to finish 2007 atop both series’ team rankings.
“I keep telling everyone to make sure and have fun,” Tucker said. “There’s no real pressure coming from Toyota, and I’m the boss, so boss’s orders are for everyone to enjoy themselves.”
When the Toyota-United team was first announced 12 months ago, Tucker made history by unveiling his own bicycle line, United Bicycles, which were manufactured by Easton. Though the team has switched to Fuji Bicycles for 2007, United-brand bikes will still be sold and distributed through Fuji distributor Advanced Sports Inc. The 2007 Fuji-United Team Issue features a full monocoque carbon fiber frame, Shimano Dura-Ace gruppo, Bontrager bars, stems, and seatposts and Bontrager Aeolus carbon wheelsets. Additionally, some riders will race Fuji’s SL-1, a sub-900 gram frameset that, when spec’d with the team’s sponsored equipment, weighs in below with the UCI’s 14.99-pound weight limit. Additional sponsors for 2007 include Bicycling Magazine, Champion System clothing, SockGuy and Tifosi Optics.
Also new in 2007 will be the team’s use of Toyota’s environmentally friendly Hybrid Synergy Drive vehicles, which use a computer-controlled powertrain to regulate power from both petroleum and electricity. Jansen and Willett will spend the 2007 season maneuvering through the race caravan in a 110-horsepower Toyota Prius hybrid.
TOYOTA-UNITED (USA)
SPONSOR: Toyota motor company, United pro cycling team
TEAM DIRECTORS: Harm Jansen, Kirk Willett
EQUIPMENT: Fuji bikes, Shimano components
WEB SITE: www.toyota-united.com
FULL ROSTER:
Chris Baldwin (USA), 10/15/75Stefano Barberi (Bra), 3/27/84Heath Blackgrove (NZ), 12/5/80Ivan Dominguez (Cub), 5/28/76Justin England (USA), 7/15/78Walker Fergsuon (USA), 2/26/82José Manuel Garcia (Mex), 12/1/72Bobby Lea (USA), 10/17/83Caleb Manion (Aus), 1/30/81Ryan Miller (USA), 5/16/80Nathan Mitchell (USA), 7/7/84Mark Scanlon (Irl), 10/10/80Ivan Stevic (Srb), 3/12/80Sean Sullivan (Aus), 8/18/78Burke Swindlehurst (USA), 10/03/73Henk Vogels (Aus), 7/31/73Chris Wherry (USA), 7/18/73
