From Ben Jacques-Maynes:
Four team BISSELL riders participated in the Santa cruz classic criterium on historic beach hill this weekend. The action started quickly and Andy J-M was immediately in the move of the day, with super-sougneur Jono, myself (BJM) and Timmo covering moves from behind. The race dragged out over 2 hours with some serious attrition, and when the front group split in the last 5 laps Andy was caught behind. I jumped into action, bridging the 45 second gap to the front of the race with a few others and then immediately hit out in search of the lead quartet. I had them in sight but the finish came a lap or two too early, and so I finished a solo 5th position. Andy sprinted in the diminished chase group, finishing 9th, while Tim blasted to 11th out of the pack. Jono pulled the pin but backed up the team with info from the sidelines.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
BISSELL kicks off the three day Cherry Blossom Classic taking 1st and 2nd in the opening stage
From Paul Mach:
This weekend a few of us Bissell boys, me, Omer, Morgan and Jeremy, headed up to The Dallas for the Cherry Blossom Classic. It is Omer's first race back after his crash at the Tour of California and he wanted some company.
The first stage today was a road race, 4 loops for 75 miles, up and over a hill. Tomorrow has a TT in the morning and Crit in the evening. There is another road race on Sunday.
Even before the start Morgan had some drama. He caught a stick on the way to the start line and tore the derailleur hanger right off his Pinarello Prince. It was pretty sad but he was a good sport and ended up as our only guy in the feedzone.
I was expecting the race to roll out pretty mellow but the local teams were out in force and a break went away early. Jeremy made it into a chase group and Omer set me up for a bridge attempt on the climb. The two front groups came together over the top so we had 2 Bissell out of about 15.
We rolled well for the rest of the lap. The second time up the climb Jeremy and I worked the front and the group dwindled down to 7 guys. At this point we decided that I should try to get up the road since Jeremy is the only one with a TT bike and I could use the extra time.
Thus, I attacked the third time up the climb and my Easton EC90 Aero wheels rolled so well I stayed away for the whole last lap. It was a little early but plan B was for Jeremy to sit on and sprint so I think we had it pretty good. That is just what he did and finished second.
Official results haven't been posted yet but I think I'm a couple minutes up on Jeremy and maybe another minute up on third place. A pretty good way to start.
This weekend a few of us Bissell boys, me, Omer, Morgan and Jeremy, headed up to The Dallas for the Cherry Blossom Classic. It is Omer's first race back after his crash at the Tour of California and he wanted some company.
The first stage today was a road race, 4 loops for 75 miles, up and over a hill. Tomorrow has a TT in the morning and Crit in the evening. There is another road race on Sunday.
Even before the start Morgan had some drama. He caught a stick on the way to the start line and tore the derailleur hanger right off his Pinarello Prince. It was pretty sad but he was a good sport and ended up as our only guy in the feedzone.
I was expecting the race to roll out pretty mellow but the local teams were out in force and a break went away early. Jeremy made it into a chase group and Omer set me up for a bridge attempt on the climb. The two front groups came together over the top so we had 2 Bissell out of about 15.
We rolled well for the rest of the lap. The second time up the climb Jeremy and I worked the front and the group dwindled down to 7 guys. At this point we decided that I should try to get up the road since Jeremy is the only one with a TT bike and I could use the extra time.
Thus, I attacked the third time up the climb and my Easton EC90 Aero wheels rolled so well I stayed away for the whole last lap. It was a little early but plan B was for Jeremy to sit on and sprint so I think we had it pretty good. That is just what he did and finished second.
Official results haven't been posted yet but I think I'm a couple minutes up on Jeremy and maybe another minute up on third place. A pretty good way to start.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Andy Jacques-Maynes 3rd at Menlo Park GP
From Jonathan Coulter, Soigneur:
Bissell Pro Cycling's Andy Jacques-Maynes continued in fine form at the Tri-Flow Menlo Park GP with a 3rd place to Garmin Chipotle rider Daniel Holloway.
On a sunny Nor-Cal afternoon, Andy put on a show for the spectators as he continually attacked the 100 rider field in an effort to shake the Garmin sprinter and BMC's Jackson Stewart, who lined up as favourites for the event. With all of Nor-Cal's top teams represented at the GP, Andy used his savvy and pure speed to be in every breakaway attempt and win a mid race priem.
In the tumultuous finale, Andy stayed away from a multi rider pileup by hitting out early with a select group of sprinters, and holding his speed down the final straightaway to place a respectable 3rd.
- Jono
Bissell Pro Cycling's Andy Jacques-Maynes continued in fine form at the Tri-Flow Menlo Park GP with a 3rd place to Garmin Chipotle rider Daniel Holloway.
On a sunny Nor-Cal afternoon, Andy put on a show for the spectators as he continually attacked the 100 rider field in an effort to shake the Garmin sprinter and BMC's Jackson Stewart, who lined up as favourites for the event. With all of Nor-Cal's top teams represented at the GP, Andy used his savvy and pure speed to be in every breakaway attempt and win a mid race priem.
In the tumultuous finale, Andy stayed away from a multi rider pileup by hitting out early with a select group of sprinters, and holding his speed down the final straightaway to place a respectable 3rd.
- Jono
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Omer Kem on Sacramento Today
From Omer Kem:
The Tour of CA is the biggest race of the year for Bissell Pro Cycling. The amount of press and media time for our sponsors is almost overwhelming at times. I was lucky enough to be asked to do a television spot on Sacramento Today, the local morning show. This was a huge oppurtunity for the team to show itself to the people of Sacramento.
On Friday morning, the day before the race, I woke up early to get picked up by the TV station. On arrival I was taken back stage and introduced to everyone involved. For Bissell this was huge media exposure, so I brought along a jersey to wear during the TV segment. Once we got started I felt comfortable talking about the Bissell Corp and its commitment to healthy living. The hosts also had questions about racing and what it takes to be a professional rider. I made sure to explain how Bissell emphasized the importance of community involvement, an example being the visit to a cancer ward at the Sacramento Children's Hospital that I was doing later that afternoon. Of course we race our bikes too! My time on TV was fun and I think it was a great event for Bissell Pro Cycling.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tour of California 2009
From Jeremy Vennell:
You only have to look at the start list of riders, with riders such as Levi Liepheimer, Fabian Cancellara and of course the legendary Lance Armstrong, to list a few, to realize that getting a start in the Tour of California is a big deal. The race is recognised as one of the biggest races in the world and is America’s equivalent to the Tour de France.
There are a lot of similarities between the two:
If the race wasn’t hard enough the weather decided to throw in an extra challenge. The first road stage started in freezing rain and it didn’t stop raining till the end of the 4th stage. And when I say rain I mean rain. My team mate even went as far as to wear a wetsuit under his clothes to stay warm.
The Prologue, a 4km blast around a circuit as an individual rider kicked the tour off. The excitement was high. With Lance Armstrong coming back from retirement after winning 7 Tour de France titles, the American crowds were massive. The mad crowd crammed along the course to watch us go as fast as we could for 4km. When Lance did finally have his turn to start, the crowd went into a frenzy of utter madness. This was to set a common trend for the rest of the 9 days.
The spectators were like they had all taken crazy pills. With costumes like the Borat swimsuit (worn by many but I remember one man that was so fat you could only see the very top of the G line, he was also fast!, making the torture of seeing his arse run in front of you last alot longer than you want), helmets with huge antlers, superhero costumes and many more original ideas. Nudity actually became mundane and some were even up for running with their babies and kids held stretched out in their arms in front of us, shaking them with excitement.
To make things harder for myself, I managed to scratch my eye after I got some piece of glass or sharp grit in it while riding the first stage in the muddy rain. This added to the discomfort and almost made it impossible to sleep for a few nights afterwards. Quite possible the most uncomfortable thing I have ever had. Lucky your eye can heal very fast. I was however luckier than two of my teammates who crashed heavily due to the bad weather; Andy Jacque-Maines crashing into a parked car, being taken away with concussion; and Omer Kem falling on a decent, slipping out on a plastic road reflector which are deadly when wet. He managed to fracture his pelvis but is making a good recovery. Our team sprinter Kirk O Bee was finding the mountains very tough and had to abandon on stage 2. Starting with 8 riders Team Bissell was down to 5 after 3 days in the tour. If we kept that up we wouldn’t have any left before we got to the last days.
Just when I thought I had it rough enough with my eye being cut up, I got a nasty virus that made me have chronic diarrhea. This had to happen also the morning of the Tour’s longest stage. 6 hrs in the saddle and every minute I was riding I was fighting with myself to stay in the race. I was absolutely wasted at the finish and I can easily say that this was one of the hardest days of my cycling carrier.
With the battle of survival in the first 5 days over I had the last three days of the tour to get amongst it. The Time Trial was a great way to start on stage 6. 26km long and with the national champion skin suit on my shoulders I was wanting to fly the flag for New Zealand proudly. I managed to get 17th which was awesome. My team mate Tom Zirbel was 7th and my other team mate Ben Jacques-Maynes was 11th. Bissell was the 5th team on the day. Which was huge for the team.
The last two days were the shortest stages of the tour but maybe the toughest due to the huge mountain passes we had to ride over. Stage 7 had such a hard start and never let up. An hour long climb was a little too much for team mate and New Zealander Peter Latham, who was told not to suffer anymore and to pull out of the race. On the decent there was a big crash which put two team mates Tom Zirbel and Frank Pipp on the road. Frank was able to get back to the bunch after spending some time in the follow cars. Tom however took a little longer to get on his bike and had to ride to the finish alone. Not such a great day for the Bissell team.
The last day and with only 4 of team Bissell starting and only 90 of the 136 rider field left in the race, the survivors were going to throw everything they had left into the last stage. The race organizers had also left the hardest to last it seemed. With the biggest climb of the tour half way through the stage and a total of 4 climbs throughout the 160km. The crowds lined the ascents screaming and yelling with barely enough room for us to ride through them. The insane ones tried to run beside us before they either got taken out by the lead motor bikes or ran out of steam. The hills kept coming and in the end there was only me and 30 other riders left. The rest of the field still battling behind or pulling out. The epic stage was a great way to finish the tour. Finishing 26th overall I was happy to get a sleep in the next morning.
You only have to look at the start list of riders, with riders such as Levi Liepheimer, Fabian Cancellara and of course the legendary Lance Armstrong, to list a few, to realize that getting a start in the Tour of California is a big deal. The race is recognised as one of the biggest races in the world and is America’s equivalent to the Tour de France.
There are a lot of similarities between the two:
- the huge crowds (2.6 million watched on the side of the road alone);
- the huge ascents with nick names such as the Alp de huez of California ( a huge 21 hair pin climb gaining 1500 vertical metres), which is very similar to its counter part in France
- and riders who are the best in the world without a doubt a start list that only gets seen in other races such as the tour de France
If the race wasn’t hard enough the weather decided to throw in an extra challenge. The first road stage started in freezing rain and it didn’t stop raining till the end of the 4th stage. And when I say rain I mean rain. My team mate even went as far as to wear a wetsuit under his clothes to stay warm.
The Prologue, a 4km blast around a circuit as an individual rider kicked the tour off. The excitement was high. With Lance Armstrong coming back from retirement after winning 7 Tour de France titles, the American crowds were massive. The mad crowd crammed along the course to watch us go as fast as we could for 4km. When Lance did finally have his turn to start, the crowd went into a frenzy of utter madness. This was to set a common trend for the rest of the 9 days.
The spectators were like they had all taken crazy pills. With costumes like the Borat swimsuit (worn by many but I remember one man that was so fat you could only see the very top of the G line, he was also fast!, making the torture of seeing his arse run in front of you last alot longer than you want), helmets with huge antlers, superhero costumes and many more original ideas. Nudity actually became mundane and some were even up for running with their babies and kids held stretched out in their arms in front of us, shaking them with excitement.
To make things harder for myself, I managed to scratch my eye after I got some piece of glass or sharp grit in it while riding the first stage in the muddy rain. This added to the discomfort and almost made it impossible to sleep for a few nights afterwards. Quite possible the most uncomfortable thing I have ever had. Lucky your eye can heal very fast. I was however luckier than two of my teammates who crashed heavily due to the bad weather; Andy Jacque-Maines crashing into a parked car, being taken away with concussion; and Omer Kem falling on a decent, slipping out on a plastic road reflector which are deadly when wet. He managed to fracture his pelvis but is making a good recovery. Our team sprinter Kirk O Bee was finding the mountains very tough and had to abandon on stage 2. Starting with 8 riders Team Bissell was down to 5 after 3 days in the tour. If we kept that up we wouldn’t have any left before we got to the last days.
Just when I thought I had it rough enough with my eye being cut up, I got a nasty virus that made me have chronic diarrhea. This had to happen also the morning of the Tour’s longest stage. 6 hrs in the saddle and every minute I was riding I was fighting with myself to stay in the race. I was absolutely wasted at the finish and I can easily say that this was one of the hardest days of my cycling carrier.
With the battle of survival in the first 5 days over I had the last three days of the tour to get amongst it. The Time Trial was a great way to start on stage 6. 26km long and with the national champion skin suit on my shoulders I was wanting to fly the flag for New Zealand proudly. I managed to get 17th which was awesome. My team mate Tom Zirbel was 7th and my other team mate Ben Jacques-Maynes was 11th. Bissell was the 5th team on the day. Which was huge for the team.
The last two days were the shortest stages of the tour but maybe the toughest due to the huge mountain passes we had to ride over. Stage 7 had such a hard start and never let up. An hour long climb was a little too much for team mate and New Zealander Peter Latham, who was told not to suffer anymore and to pull out of the race. On the decent there was a big crash which put two team mates Tom Zirbel and Frank Pipp on the road. Frank was able to get back to the bunch after spending some time in the follow cars. Tom however took a little longer to get on his bike and had to ride to the finish alone. Not such a great day for the Bissell team.
The last day and with only 4 of team Bissell starting and only 90 of the 136 rider field left in the race, the survivors were going to throw everything they had left into the last stage. The race organizers had also left the hardest to last it seemed. With the biggest climb of the tour half way through the stage and a total of 4 climbs throughout the 160km. The crowds lined the ascents screaming and yelling with barely enough room for us to ride through them. The insane ones tried to run beside us before they either got taken out by the lead motor bikes or ran out of steam. The hills kept coming and in the end there was only me and 30 other riders left. The rest of the field still battling behind or pulling out. The epic stage was a great way to finish the tour. Finishing 26th overall I was happy to get a sleep in the next morning.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tour of White Rock 2008
From Scott Zwizanski:
For the Tour of White Rock, Garrett and I were joined by the teams newly graduated construction manager, Morgan Schmitt. The race was set up as an omnium, starting with a Hillclimb TT, then a crit and ended with a tough RR held on a 10k hilly circuit.
The Hillclimb TT was just under 1k long and morgan finished up in 10th and I ended up 13th, both of us just missing points for the omnium competition.
The crit was a cool little 1k course with a nice little hill on the backside. The race was fast with lots of attacking and small groups getting small gaps, but no one in the race watned to miss a move. So it ended up coming down to a field kick. I had some bad luck in the final lap and had another riders skewer take out several of my spokes in the front wheel, so I never made it to the finish line. Morgan battled his way to a 10th place finish.
The final race was a 134k RR, held on a 10k circuit and ending on a smaller 4k circuit for 6 laps. After 10 laps on the big circuit, the field was together and chris horner hit out on the big climb. We missed the front group of 6 riders and the 3 of us chased like mad on the front of the field. On the small laps, the chasing field was down to just 20 riders. Garrett set me up to try to bridge across, but it was too little too late. And I crossed the line in 7th place.
The racing for BC Superweek was great, and it should set us up well for the upcoming races in August and September.
Friday, July 18, 2008
BC Superweek
From Garrett Peltonen:
This year Scotty Zwizanski and myself are representing the Bissell Pro Cycling team at BC Superweek held in picturesque Vancouver, British Columbia. BC Superweek is compilation of four different races…two separate crits sandwiched between two three day stage races. Basically it is a lot of racing…eight races in ten days to be exact!
After five of the eight days of racing complete Scotty and I have had some success but also some disappointment! The first race on our schedule was the Tour of Delta which was a three day stage race. Despite not having any aero equipment we managed a solid third (Scotty) and sixth (me) in the tt and held on for two top ten finishes in the overall.
Following the Tour of Delta was the historic Gastown Crit held in downtown Vancouver. The crowds were huge and the race was crazy hard with only about one-third of the field finishing the race! Despite both of us being there at the end we could only muster up Scotty’s nineteenth place finish.
That brings us to last night’s crit….the Giro de Burnabi. Once again the race came down to another field kick and once again Scotty and I came up a bit short. However, there is still the Tour of White Rock which starts today and I think this race is more up our alley?
At the end of the day it is my first time in Vancouver or British Columbia for that matter and I am really impressed with the area and the racing! Now hopefully we can get a win a the Tour of White Rock to make the trip complete!
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