From Ted King

With the air beginning to turn cool and crisp, the 2007 cycling season draws to a close once again shrouded by controversy in the highest echelon of the sport. The World Championships, taking place in late September, should be a highly celebrated event for our sport, culminating another exciting year of bike racing. However, the only news regarding the race over the past two months is who is being barred because they're somehow affiliated with this or that drug scandal. As a cyclist and cycling fan, it's just sickening to see these allegations time after time.

Wait wait wait. "…the highest echelon of the sport." That's right, the ProTour. Sure there's the occasional, single anomaly every two or three years in American domestic racing, but by in large to compare the cleanliness of the racing in America to the racing overseas is like comparing a brand new drivetrain to a drivetrain after a wet cyclocross race in the Belgium. While it's reassuring to see the continual steps to curb doping by the UCI and others, the most significant measure is a result of developing clean cyclists from the ground up. This is the exact direction that American domestic cycling is taking and this pure form of cycling is one in which I'm proud to be a participant.

I first met Mark Bissell in the early spring of 2006 while on the Priority Health team during a swing through the team's home state of Michigan during a lull in the race season. While crisscrossing the country for the past two years, rumors began floating around that 2008 would be the year Bissell took over the title sponsorship. The past two years have been an amazing experience with Priority Health allowing me to get my foot in the door and really experience American professional racing on a full time basis. But when I first heard this rumor many months back I started feeling like a giddy school child! See, having met Mark in '06, I knew that he was going to be bringing a genuine love for the sport of cycling. He's not just an enormous fan of the sport, he's also a cyclist himself and can identify with the team, the riders, and the entire experience. As a racer, this type of sponsorship makes you want to work, train, and race that much harder. It's not just punching a clock and slogging through a work day, time and again, because in this instance your bosses are wholeheartedly supporting you and wishing you the best.

Enthusiastic and appreciating sponsors, in addition to the talent and experience of the team's newest signings, promise to make 2008 the year yet for this team. These factors will contribute to the continual strengthening of American racing, and ultimately to a cleaning and purifying of the sport.

-Ted King