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Ask TIAA-CREF team director Jonathan Vaughters how important the upcoming season is along the career path of his team’s new leader Will Frischkorn, and he’ll tell you that in a word, it’s crucial. After five years racing at the professional level the 23-year-old Frischkorn is, for the first time in his career, being given the opportunity to lead a team.
“Will is 23, going to be 24 this year, and at that sort of the age, you really have three options,” Vaughters said. “Maybe not for somebody that starts racing at 22, but Will’s been at this for more than five years. At the point he’s at in his career, you can either jump to a ProTour team, continue with an American team or become a lawyer, or journalist… Will’s objective is to make it over to Europe and ride at the ProTour level. I think in 2005 he’s either going to go big or go home.”
Regarded by many as the future of American talent since he worked his way up the Mercury pipeline, Frischkorn rode for Mercury’s junior and amateur squads before joining its professional squad in 2000, turning down an offer to join U.S. Postal in the process. Just a month after his 19th birthday, Frischkorn was making a name at races such as the Grand Prix Ouest-France, where he found himself in a breakaway with some of the sport’s biggest names such as Andrea Tafi, Sven Montgomery and Magnus Bäckstedt.
But the past few years have been erratic for Frischkorn — or as Vaughters put it, “Things have gone a bit sideways since then.” A significant back injury that began in 2000 derailed much of Frischkorn’s 2001 season, and after his team folded, he joined Saturn in 2002, also racing on and off with the national U23 squad in Europe.
“The offer with Postal was a two-year deal, and I had a three-year deal with Mercury,” Frischkorn said. “Mercury had given me opportunities when I was coming up, and had supported me the year that I was injured. It was a difficult decision. Mercury was something of an unknown. At the time I thought I made the right choice, but I’ve definitely questioned the decision since.”
According to Vaughters, who rode for U.S. Postal in 1998 and 1999, that was likely Frischkorn’s one and only chance to ride alongside Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.
“He turned down Johan Bruyneel once,” Vaughters said. “I think if you turn them down, that’s it with them. If Will’s going to return to the ProTour level it would have to be on another team.”
A few bad crashes hindered Frischkorn for much of the 2002 season, but he showed flashes of brilliance, including a win at the U23 national championship and an impressive 7th place at the demanding San Francisco Grand Prix, right on Armstrong’s wheel.
In 2003 Frischkorn returned with a revamped Saturn squad that dominated every domestic stage race from March through September, and he repeatedly found himself riding in the service of Tom Danielson, Nathan O’Neill and Chris Horner. And again he spent part of his season riding with the national team, pulling off a 3rd place finish at the U23 Tour of Flanders. When Saturn’s sponsorship ended, Frischkorn went to Colavita Olive Oil along with Saturn teammates Mark McCormack, Nathan O’Neill and Ivan Dominguez.
Frischkorn won his first NRC stage race in 2004, the Colorado Cyclist Classic held near his adopted hometown of Boulder, Colorado, but chose to sign with TIAA-CREF, a team Vaughters launched as an amateur U23 developmental team last year.
“It was a really a fun year with Colavita,” he said. “I was there with a few guys from Saturn, and it was a good experience helping the program grow and develop. It was great riding with Nathan O’Neill and Mark McCormack and I had a few opportunities for myself. Most importantly, I had a lot of fun last year.”
For 2005, TIAA-CREF returns as a professional U25 team continuing its emphasis on developing young talent. At 24, Frischkorn will be the oldest member of a team that will look for standout performances from Craig Lewis, Tim Duggan and Blake Caldwell.
“To me this is Will’s first opportunity to make good as the promise he showed as a junior, to be a leader and win races and find a ProTour level team for 2006,” Vaughters said. “I view his tenure at TIAA-CREF as either his last chance to go to the big leagues, or his chance to lead a team into the big leagues.”
Vaughters explained that the team wouldn’t be focusing on the NRC calendar, but targeting races that will best suit the young team’s goals. Those races will include the Tour de Georgia, Wachovia week and Redlands, as well as the Tour de Chile, the U25 Giro d’Italia, and the Tour de l’Avenir. Vaughters will travel with the team abroad, while track World Cup gold medalist Colby Pearce will direct the team domestically.
“We’re not going to chase the NRC,” Vaughters said. “There are too many international races on our calendar. We’re going to the best events in the world for all of the guys to develop.”
And though it’s natural to question whether a team of young riders might be able to protect Frischkorn should he be in a position to win a stage race, both Vaughters and Frischkorn believe in their boys.
“It will be hard for the guys if Will pulls of the race lead,” Vaughters said. “It’s going to be a stretch. Theses young guys aren’t lacking in power or fitness, it’s confidence they’ll need.”
And that’s where Frischkorn steps in.
“My primary goal is to help a lot of the young guys,” he said. “There is a lot of ability on the team, some of the guys just need guidance. But I really think they will be able to work for me. We’ve got a lot of guys people don’t know about, but I think everybody shows that when they need to, they can dig deeper. Look at Webcor in 2004— when it’s on the line, guys that need to do their job generally show they can.”
