Fly V Australia / Successful Living @ Sat Swami Ride

Steve Hegg and 5 of his riders came to the Swami ride today. They will be using this ride as a tempo ride after their hard effort yesterday up Palomar..

The team is still in their kits from last year, the new kits will be here soon.

2009 Kit: Team V Australia p/b Successful Living Foundation

Here's a preview of the kit. I went through 21 revisions until it was signed off by management and partners.

Stick a fork in Bob and he is done

Just got off the phone with Bob Rosemeyer who lead the team around East San Diego County today....

Five riders from "Fly V Australia presented by Successful Living " plus Bob rode today. They started at Starbucks on Melrose in Vista. Did the following route:
Vista Twist / SLR race course / 395 to Rainbow / Rice Canyon / Couser Canyon / W. Lilac / Valley Ctr / portion of Stage 8 into Escondido in reverse.

While they were riding through Escondido they checked out the finish of Stage 8 of the Tour of California and finished their ride around 2pm

Bob can see why they are pros and he is not - They are fast and compared to them he is not. 85 miles today and Bob is done....

He is not riding with them tomorrow when the go to Palomar....

Swami Wed Ride - Practice for Tour of California?

Five riders from Successful Living, along with TofC riders from Jelly Belly & BMC were on the ride yesterday and made for a spirited ride to San Onofre State Park and back. Troy Huerta said "I do the Wednesday ride every week and I have never seen it this fast. There were multiple attacks from each of the TofC teams during the ride."

So North County SD is the place to be if you are following the Tour of California.

Rumor has it that the Fly V Australia presented by Successful Living will be out tomorrow and checking out Palomar Mountain and Cole Grade.

Getting the team together @ Swamis Wednesday Ride

Five members of the team came in last night. We are still getting all the equipment and supplies together. Swamis is helping us out in the short term. Troy and the gang is even giving us jackets and helmets for today's ride. The Aussies are coming in today and tomorrow.



Here is the first picture of our new Parlee Team bike.




Dave C took some pictures of us hanging out at Starbucks before the start of the Wednesday morning ride.

Our guest for the week...

Around 7pm last night our guest, Alex Lagutin came to the door. Alex is the mechanic / masseur of the team. He is 23, from Uzbekistan, and has been in the U.S. for about 4 months. He like the rest of us is still in the dark about the organization of the team.

Thanks to Marilyn I found out that Alex's brother Sergey has won the Tour de Korea in 2008, was the Uzbekistan National Road Champion, and the World Road Race Champion (U-23). Sergey was also on Navigators 2007 Tour of California team.

Team Members coming to San Diego

To prepare for the climbs of San Diego on Stage 8 of the Tour of California, the team riders are arriving in San Diego. Steve Hegg has asked Swami club member to give his riders a warm place to stay while they are riding up and down Palomar Mountain.

The rumor is that they will be racing at Blvd and Red Trolley next weekend.

V Australia/Virgin Blue target Aussie titles

V Australia/Virgin Blue presented by Successful Living Foundation will target next month's Australian Open Road Championship crowns, having wrapped up the criterium title last weekend. The team's Bernard Sulzberger claimed the national criterium title at Cronulla in Sydney on Sunday, after out-sprinting Peter McDonald (Drapac Porsche).

Team manager Chris White said Sulzberger's victory is the first success to come from its "operation green and gold" and hopes that more fruit will come at next month's road titles. "We've been running operation green and gold internally for six months," said White of the team's focus on the national jerseys.

V Australia/Virgin Blue presented by Successful Living Foundation will send a number of riders to the national titles, with last year's Under 23 Time Trial Championship runner-up Ben King likely to be one of its contenders. "We are going to put a team of riders in that race which are capable of taking that jersey away," said White.

Sulzberger is also hoping to get in on the action in Ballarat next month. "It would be awesome to be able to have both the national criterium and road jerseys in the closet at the same time – I think the green and gold stripes look pretty good on me," he laughed.

After putting its toe in the American cycling waters this year, contesting Superweek, V Australia/Virgin Blue will further push into the market in 2009. Having teamed up with the Successful Living squad, V Australia/Virgin Blue presented by Successful Living Foundation is hoping to get an invite to the Tour of California.

"2009 will be big year for our team," said Sulzberger. "We are on the way up – we have a great program, a great bunch of guys and we will be doing a lot of criteriums. It will be fantastic to be able to race in the national champion's jersey."