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