Are the Planets Aligned for Fly V Austrailia p/b Successful Living in Redlands Today?

Today starts the 25th edition of the Redlands Classic stage race with a 5k time trial. Twenty Five years ago Steve Hegg (Co-Director of Fly V) and 1984 US Olympic team member Thurlow Rogers were part of the winning team for the first edition of Redlands. Thurlow won the event with Steve's & Thurlow's team (Levi's-Raleigh) the winning team event.

With his win last week at San Dimas, Ben Day is expected to be battling it out with Floyd Landis (OUCH p/b Maxxis), Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Jeff Louder (BMC), Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefits Strategies) and Chris Baldwin (Rock Racing) for the GC.

On the morning of the TT, Ben Day feels confident, having won the prolog & overall GC in San Dimas. Ben is focused on turning around his last year's Redlands prologue result of a close second to Rory Sutherland.

Team mate, Jono Cantwell is showing his true potential to win the final criterium after wining the last stage at San Dimas last week. The Team demonstrated how strong and committed they are in San Dimas to defend Ben for the 3 days after the TT.

So the planets are aligned. Fly V has the heritage of being part of the first winning team back in 1985 and the momentum to win.

Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living line up for Redlands

After a good win at San Dimas, Team Fly V is getting ready for Redlands. Most of the team made its way to Redlands yesterday and getting ready for tomorrows Prologue.

It looks like the roster for tomorrow's start is: Alessandro Bazzana / Ben Day / Jonathan Cantwell /Charles Dionne / Micheal Grabinger / Ben King / Bernard Sulzberger / Phil Zajicek

The Aussies on the team are feeling at home as they are staying with local ex Aussie in Redlands, eating meat pies and playing with cricket bats.

Roadbike Review.Com highlights Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living's chances @ Redlands

I can see why I cannot make the big money writing promotional pieces for the team. Thein from Roadbike Review takes the same information I have and makes it much more exciting....He also does a better job with using the pictures...

.....There is little time for celebration as Fly V Australia is already planning for next weekend and the Redlands Classic, which commences on Thursday 26 March.

Fly V Australia will be in contention for Redlands, with the San Dimas result confirming it has the weaponry to match it with America’s best domestic lineups, including last year’s winning team, Rock Racing.

Fly V Australia is aiming to carry the momentum from the Tour of Murrieta (14 – 15 March) where Jonathan Cantwell won the final stage to claim 2nd overall, through San Dimas to Redlands (26 - 29 March) and the Long Beach criterium (5 April)......
Click here for the Article

Nice Pictures of Fly V Australia win at San Dimas

We are starting to get some nice pictures of the win at San Dimas for Ben and Bazz. Check them out.

3 wins for Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living @ San Dimas yesterday

Only 1 second separated Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living’s Ben Day and Jelly Belly’s Phil Gaimon going into the 3rd stage. The Fly V p/b Successful Living team rode attentively and kept things under control, with race leader Ben Day picking up a six second bonus in the hot spot sprint and a prime. Alessandro Bazzana earned enough hot spot points to wrap up the Green Sprinters Jersey.
With five to go, Team OUCH got their train rolling for sprinter John Murphy, and with two to go the Bissell Team tried to derail it for their sprinter Cody O’Reilly. In the end, both teams came up a little short on the long circuit and Fly V’s Jonathan Cantwell powered to the line first with a bike throw for the win just beating out Sebastian Haedo (Colavita) for second and John Murphy (OUCH) for third. In the end Ben Day extended his GC lead by 6 seconds and Fly V won the day (J. Cantwell) won the Green (A Bazzana) and the GC (B. Day).
Ben Day was up early this morning, even after last night's celebration. The team is already planning for next weekend and the Redlands stage race.

Fly V will be in contention for Redlands, already showing they are a player against last year's winning team, Rock Racing. Let's hope they can show their power again over Chris Baldwin, Rahsaan Bahati and Justin Williams.

The field is highlighted by stand out performers such as BMC’s Jeff Louder and Scott Nydam, Neil Shirley and 2007 winner Andy Bajadali of Kelly Benefits Strategies, Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes, OUCH’s Floyd Landis and Rory Sutherland, and 2005 winner Chris Wherry (Team Hotel San Jose). The list includes two current national champions; a Tour of California KOM Jersey winner; a two-time NRC Champion; former RBC stage and GC winners; the recipients of the Most Aggressive Riders Jersey at both the Tour de Georgia and Tour of California; the 2008 Carroll King Sportsmanship Award winner and former US National Road Champion, not to mention the winner of the ’06 edition of the Tour of California, and the Tour de Georgia…

Go get them boys!

Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living's Ben Day keeps Yellow Jersey

Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living had the challenge of keeping the other teams in check on the demanding course of Stage 2 of the San Dimas Stage Race, while protecting GC Leader Ben Day’s Yellow Jersey. Stage 2 was a tough road race to control. Trying to contain a carnivorous peloton with witches hats and a double yellow line always dictates that this race is a little sketchy to say the least. The first 4 laps were done at warp speed. Comments from the peloton were that there was no way that Fly V/Successful Living could ride that tempo and still be there at the end. Several breaks escaped the peloton throughout the day, but were eventually reeled back in. The team protected Ben Day, pulling him back into the peloton each lap after the sharp little climb on the course.

Phil Zajicek crashed hard during the stage hitting a cone and a rider on the ground at 35 mph. Phil lost lots of skin, but the wrist that was broken at AToC is OK. It is a great loss to the team as he was riding very well.

In the end, Jelly Belly’s Phil Gaimon took a flyer and held off a hard charging peloton to the line for the victory and picked up the valuable 20 second time bonus with local talents Cody O’Reilly (Bissell) taking 2nd and Iggy Silva (Rock Racing) rounding out the podium for 3rd.

The road race finish put Gaimon just 1 second behind Day in GC going into today's final stage, the Incycle/Cannondale Old Town Grand Prix, located in downtown San Dimas. Last year, Rock Racing’s Oscar Sevilla lost by just 1 second to Team Ouch’s Cameron Evans on the crit course. Expect a battle royale as the riders and teams go for valuable time bonuses or try to get up the road to gain time and steal the win.

GC results

Pl Name Team Time Behind

1 Day, Ben Team Fly V 3:26:44 @ 00:00

2 Gaimon, Phillip Jelly Belly 3:26:45 @ 00:01

3 Baldwin, Chris Rock Racing 3:26:53 @ 00:09

Can Ben Day and the Fly V boys keep the yellow and win the tour in today’s stage 3 crit? Today is the day to drive to San Dimas and watch the Pro 1 crit in at 3:25pm and support the Fly V Australia presented by Successful Living team!

Ben Day (Fly V Australia) Wins the Glendora Chevrolet TT at the San Dimas Stage Race

Ben Day has new course record of 12:44.18
The 3.8 mile race featured a gradual climb up Glendora Mountain Road which ranks among the most popular climbs in Southern California. Ben Day of Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living stormed the course with a time of 12:44, with Rock Racing's Chris Baldwin finishing nine seconds back in 12:53, and Peter Stetina (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin) with a time of 12:57. Look for some fireworks tomorrow at the San Dimas Hospital Road Race at Bonelli Park as teams try to shake the GC up.

Fly V Australia / Successful Living gearing up for San Dimas & Redlands

With Fly V getting 2nd, 4th and 6th at Murietta last weekend, the team is building for San Dimas and Redlands in the next two weeks. Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living will be starting with Bazzana, Cantwell, Day, Dionne, George, Kemp, Salzberger, Zajicek. Should be a strong group for San Dimas
Here is what Henk Vogels said to Velo News this week about 2009 goals in the USA:
....VN: With the roster and schedule the team has, what are realistic goals for 2009?
HV: I think Ben Day can win Redlands. He has better form than last year, and last year he was one second behind Rory Sutherland in the Redlands prologue, but then he crashed out. Phil Zajicek is managing his health issues well (Zajicek was diagnosed last year with Crohn’s Disease). He was in great form at the Amgen Tour of California before he broke his scaphoid. So in those guys we have two great GC riders. Then we have awesome one-day guys in Sulzberger, Charles Dionne, David Kemp and Cantwell. I think Sulzberger and Dionne are both capable of winning in Philadelphia.
Our team has six major objectives in North America — Cascade, Tour de Beauce, Philadelphia, Tour of Utah, Tour of Missouri and the Tour of Elk Grove. I think either Day or Zajicek can win Cascade; Zajicek won it in 2007. I think Ben Day is a seriously underrated talent. He is someone who can and should challenge Rory to win NRC. That’s not our goal, because to win the NRC you have to send riders to each event, and we don’t have budget for that. I also think the surprise package this year is going to be Sulzberger. I can see him winning out of a break. He is very quick. He had two top -10 bunch sprint finishes at the Tour of California....
click here for the article in Velo News

Curtis Gunn Interview Tour of California 2009

Just saw this. Missing Saddle does some nice interviews with the racers.



Watch how he deflects being the Old Man. I wish I was that young.

Fly V Australia / Successful Living Back Story of AToC from Ben Day

Ben Day did a nice interview with Pez Cycling last week. He gives a nice behind the scenes look at the team during the Tour of California.

...PEZ: ToC is such a big race early in the season. Did V Australia specifically train for it or are there other goals the team is setting up for in 2009?
BD: Team Fly V Australia presented by Successful Living was only notified of it's invitation to the AToC only a few weeks before the start of the race and therefore there were many, many hurdles that had to be overcome before rolling down the start ramp on February 14. Clothing and equipment were only finalised moments before, which was a small victory in itself. We really couldn't have been worse prepared, but we did have everything we needed on the day. We are all quality athletes, our administration gets things done and strives for success at all levels. We will be back in the future looking for more success....
click here to read the rest of the article

Kempy’s AToC TIPS

Fly V Australia rider David Kemp is blogging on Cycling Tips.
Kempy and Johnson catching Mancebo on Stage 1 and getting 11 minutes on the bunch.

Kempy's view on stage 1
.... The tactics vary from team to team. For example, Astana’s goal was to control the race and ride tempo on the front and let the smaller teams go for the breakaways and get some "TV" time for exposure for their sponsors. You know very well that 99% of the time this move doesn’t work, it’s that 1% that keeps you going!....
Click here for the article

Epilog - Fly V Australia / Successful Living TofC

At the guy from Fly V Australia that finished the race, I thought you would like to hear Ben Day's last observations of the Tour of California

....It was a tough opening for this fledgling team, but already there is talk about the future, about how mistakes will be corrected and how missed opportunities will be grasped. Team Fly V Australia will fight on and will be representing again very soon.

All in all, we had a fairly successful tour taking into consideration our limited preparation.

The highlights were a few days in good breakaways with Dave Kemp and Curtis Gunn and two top 10 finishes for Bernie Sulzberger, we will only go up from here.

I am really excited about this project. In such a short space of time, the boys were able to receive the invite to California and now that that has been achieved, all the resources will be put into pushing the team towards some lofty goals....
click here for the article

BikeRadar.com review of David Kemp's Parlee TT

Bike Radar did a nice piece of David's TT bike and an interview with Parlee's Tom Rodi.

Here is some of what Tom Rodi said about the team and the bike.

....“Our fundamental motivation for working with the team (Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living) is simply that we love the sport of bike racing and we love to build race bikes,” he said. “As competitive as the athletes riding the bikes are, we are the same way about building the best race bikes in the world, so naturally we want them to be used at the highest levels of competition.The R&D we get from the athletes, mechanics and staff is really valuable, well worth the investment. A team of 14 pros is going to beat the snot out of the bikes and expose things that might take years to find otherwise.

“We've always looked to build not only the best riding but also the most durable race bikes out there, and pushing the bikes hard not only in testing, then riding and racing, but also in travel and transit exposes areas to do better. We're all for that. Getting our name in front of tonnes of fans around the world doesn't hurt either.”.....

click here for the article

fi’zi:k Checking out the back sides of Riders

fi’zi:k is trying to justify taking pictures of the back sides of riders, by discussing their logo. She also included Curtis Gunn into her efforts.

...Curtis Gunn from the Fly V Australia pb Successful Living team said, “I definitely notice what’s on the backs of other riders because that’s how I pick out where my guys are or where other riders and teams are positioned. That’s how I can identify them quickly.” He continued, “I don’t notice that much when I’m out on a group ride but I definitely notice when I’m in the pack – in a race situation.”....
click here for the article on her blog

V Australia p/b Successful Living claim 9th place in Stage 4 of 2009 Tour of California

Top 10 for Criterium Champ Sulzberger

Bernie Sulzberger claimed ninth place in today’s 185 kilometre fourth stage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. On a day when the sun finally showed itself, Australian Criterium Champion Sulzberger fought hard to take his place among the world’s top sprinters with a tight top 10 finish in the field sprint in the stage from Merced to Clovis.

However with the warmer weather and a stage profile ideally suited to a sprint finish, the all-star teams of the fancied sprinters set to work and reeled in the break three kilometres from the finish. Sulzberger, with support from Ben Day, fought hard to make position in the finale as the bunch thundered to the line at over 70 kilometres per hour.

Speaking about his ride soon after the finish, Sulzberger said, “Man, that was chaotic and fast! The big teams were absolutely driving it, all Ben Day and I could do was hang on for the ride. It was almost impossible to move up. At about 800 metres from the line, a gap opened. To finish up ninth coming from 30th wheel inside the last kilometre in this quality field … I guess I’ve got to be happy with that.”

Sulzberger went on to add, “Hopefully I’ll have another chance to show what I can do in a sprint finish. This experience has whetted my appetite and I’m having fun.” With upcoming stages likely to favour the sprinters, Sulzberger is likely to get his wish.