Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team 2007

This is how Henk Vogels' day ended Saturday: with a trip to the hospital.
When Henk Vogels crashed out of Saturday’s Cougar Mountain Classic Criterium, some of his Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team teammates did not even know it.

Vogels was attempting to solo bridge to a 10-man breakaway that included teammate Ivan Dominguez when he struck a crowd control fence post in a tight corner on the Infineon Raceway.

“My shoulder hit it and I heard it snap,” Vogels said.

The violent impact didn’t knock the 6-foot, 175-pounder off his bicycle and he was able to make his way to the finish line where medical personnel rushed him to an ambulance.

When Dominguez’s breakaway lapped the field, the Cuban sprinter started searching for his leadout man.

“It never crossed my mind that he was no longer in the race,” Dominguez said.

Ryan Miller said he didn’t know what happened, but it didn’t look good.

“You deflate when you’re rolling through the finish and see your teammate lying on the ground,” Miller said.

A few hours later, Vogels received confirmation of what he already suspected: his collarbone was broken. The injury is expected to sideline him for six to eight weeks.

“Hopefully, it’s more on the six weeks side,” Vogels said Sunday. “Fortunately, it was a clean break so I didn’t have to have an operation.”

Vogels’ injury is a “huge blow” to the team, said Toyota-United Team Director Kirk Willett.

“He will be sorely missed, as he is one of the best in the world at what he does,” Willett said. “The fact that he has played a pivotal role all year in delivering Stevic and Dominguez to so many top placings makes our pursuit of the Team NRC (National Race Calendar) title an even greater challenge. We are going to have to fill a big horsepower and leadership hole as a team.”

Indeed, the 13-year pro has played a key role in several victories – none bigger than Dominguez’s win on Stage 7 in Long Beach in the Amgen Tour of California

“I'm optimistic that with any luck, a speedy recovery will see Henk able to start training within a month and racing in late August or early September,” Willett said.

That timetable puts Vogels back in action in time for the final NRC races, as well as the inaugural Tour of Missouri, Sept. 11-16.

Labels: Henk Vogels

Henk Vogels (right) holds his arm after crashing out of the criterium Saturday.
Sonoma, Calif. - Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez and Henk Vogels were injured in separate crashes Saturday at the Cougar Mountain Classic at Infineon Raceway.

Dominguez was taken out of contention on the final turn to the finish when he crashed with two other riders. The Cuban sprinter, who only returned to racing last weekend after a crash put him out of action for eight weeks, suffered minor road rash and is expected to be OK.

Vogels was not as fortunate. The Australian lead-out specialist struck a pole with his shoulder. X-Rays and a CAT scan revealed a crack in his scapula that is expected to keep him out of action for six to eight weeks.

Dominguez appeared to be on his way to the win after being part of a small group that lapped the field midway through the 90-minute race.

Labels: Henk Vogels, Ivan Dominguez

Manhattan Beach, Calif. — Ivan Dominguez’s will to win was strong Sunday at the 46th edition of the Chevron Manhattan Beach Grand Prix. But after a month-and-a-half of rehabilitating a back injury, his legs were not quite fast enough to deliver him first to the finish line at the end of the 90-minute race.

“I wanted to win badly because so many people came out to see me,” Dominguez said after finishing second to Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing). “But I just didn’t feel fast enough today. I only had two weeks of real riding.”

Dominguez was quick to add that Bahati – a former junior national criterium and road champion – won the field sprint impressively. Bahati’s teammate, Kayle Leo Grande, also made the podium with his third-place finish.

“Bahati was 10 kilometers faster than me,” Dominguez said. “He’s riding good and this was good for him because his team owner put a lot of resources and backing into the race.”

Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said Dominguez’s result should instill some confidence in the Cuban super sprinter. Dominguez won eight races in the first three-and-a-half months of the season before being sidelined following a crash after the finish of Stage 1 at the Tri-Peaks Challenge on May 17.

“Of course you always want to win, but second place isn’t bad,” Jansen said.

With five other teammates in the race Sunday, Dominguez was able to sit in the back of the peloton and periodically test his legs for what would ultimately be a dash to a 180-degree corner that sets the riders up for a final 300-meter sprint to the finish.

“I did a few sprints in the back to see how my legs were going and I knew then that I was not 100 percent,” Dominguez said.

Sunday’s race, in front of an estimated crowd of more than 7,500 spectators, was also streamed live over the Internet by iBN Sports. On-line viewers saw Dominguez’s Toyota-United teammates Ryan Miller, Jose Manuel “Chepe” Garcia (shown at left), Chris Wherry, Sean Sullivan, Caleb Manion and Henk Vogels massed at the front with three 1.4-mile laps remaining.

Sullivan said what viewers at home could not see in the closing laps was a “messy and dangerous” battle as dozens of riders fought their way to be in the front.

“The way the wind was blowing today, it was a pretty easy ride so at the finish, everyone was really fresh,” he said.

The aggressive racing came to a head with half-a-lap to go when Wherry nearly crashed.

“Chris basically got pinched out and it nearly took out all the spokes in his front wheel,” Jansen said. “Until that point, we had everything set up perfectly with Chris on Sullivan’s wheel and Henk and Ivan right behind him. They had to come back from 20 guys so it really disrupted their whole rhythm.”

Still, Vogels was able to tow Dominguez up to the front and he was first to dive into the final 180-degree turn.

“As soon as you make the U-turn, you have to go,” Dominguez said. “I went but Bahati made it seem like I was standing still when he went by me.”

Next up for Dominguez and Toyota-United is the Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic at the Infineon, Calif., Raceway July 7-8. Both the criterium on Saturday and circuit race on Sunday will utilize the 12-turn, 2.52-mile twisting and turning course.

“It’s all about Ivan next weekend,” Jansen said. “With the guys’ help, he has to go out there and make it happen.”

Labels: Caleb Manion, Henk Vogels, Ivan Dominguez, Sean Sullivan

Ivan Stevic's victory was his first stage race win since turning pro in 2005.
Stillwater, Minn. - Ivan Stevic will be the first to tell you that his first overall stage race victory in his two-and-a-half seasons as a professional was hardly an individual effort.

Stevic’s Toyota-United Pro Cycling teammates helped the 27-year-old win the opening criterium of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Then they spent the rest of the five-day, six-stage National Race Calendar event chasing down break-aways or controlling the field in the race’s remaining criterium and two road stages.

After losing the lead after Thursday night’s Cannon Falls Road Race, the two-time Serbian National Champion regained it with a stunning third-place in the following morning’s time trial.

Stevic sealed the win – and his victory in the Wheaties sprint points competition – by finishing sixth in Sunday’s criterium in the same time as winner Frank Pipp (Health Net).

On the final classification, Stevic finished 27 seconds ahead of Rory Sutherland (Health Net) in a race that covered 251 miles (405 km) in a blazingly fast 29.2 mph.

Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said the team approached the race with the idea that Stevic would win.

“He had the best odds,” Jansen said. “If you limit mistakes, you secure those odds.
“It’s always tough to ride a flawless race but that’s where the state of the team comes in. This group of guys can really pull together and make it happen. If you have a concise, clear plan in place, everyone can visualize that win and that’s they did this week.”

Henk Vogels said the timing of the victory was also good.

“This was the most valuable race of the year for us as far as the NRC is concerned,” he said.

Race Note: Chris Wherry said he is feeling better after having to abandon the race after the second stage. “I had a cold and it went straight to my lungs, which made it hard to breathe,” he said. “I’m already doing better and looking forward to racing at Manhattan Beach next week.”

Labels: Chris Wherry, Harm Jansen, Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic

Stevic wins with a fist pump while Vogels (right) has time to celebrate as well.
St. Paul, Minn. - Ivan Stevic of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team captured the opening stage of the ninth annual Nature Valley Grand Prix Wednesday night by winning the Downtown St. Paul Criterium.

Stevic rebounded from a mid-race crash that sent him over the handlebars and onto the pavement coming into the first turn of the six-corner, six-tenths of a mile (1.1 km) course that the racers circled for 60 minutes.

“Two guys in front of me crashed and I lost control and went down,” Stevic said. “I got back up and I was pretty angry after that so the adrenaline was really flowing.”

Stevic was delivered to the finish line by teammates Henk Vogels, Caleb Manion and Sean Sullivan (pictured at right) in what Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen called “an impressive leadout.” Kirk O’Bee (Health Net presented by Maxxis) finished second and Jonathan Page (Nature Valley) was third.

“Henk (Vogels) was the last one to pull off and even he managed to finish fourth,” Jansen said.

The victory was Stevic’s fourth of the season and the 25th for Toyota-United in 2007. Just three days ago, Stevic won the Driveway Criterium in Austin, Texas, using another picture-perfect lead-out from Vogels.

“I was feeling pretty good before the crash,” Stevic said. “It helps that the guys were amazing and did more than a perfect job to help me tonight.”

Jansen said Toyota-United has every intention of keeping the yellow jersey of race leadership on Stevic’s back for the remainder of the five-day, six-stage race.

“We definitely want to protect the jersey,” Jansen said. “Tomorrow, we will be protecting Stevic and one or two of our other riders.”

Thursday’s stage is the 65.3-mile (105 km) Cannon Falls Road Race. The race starts and finishes at Cannon Falls, Minn., with a 5 p.m. start. Though it is a short race, Jansen cautioned that it will be made more difficult by five laps of a difficult 1.9-mile (3 km) finishing circuit.

“It’s going to be windy and the finishing circuits are pretty tough. That makes tomorrow’s race a tough one,” Jansen said.

Stevic, who won the final stage of the 2006 race, said he hadn’t even looked that far ahead.

“If it’s like last year’s course, it is pretty steep, short climbs,” he said. “No matter what, I think we have a strong team here so we’ll see how it goes.”

Labels: Harm Jansen, Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic, Sean Sullivan

Toyota-United's Sean Sullivan (center) escaped with USA Crits series leader Mark Hekman (Abercrombie & Fitch) and Phil Wikoff (HealthCoach) with 10 laps to go.
Austin, Texas - Short on numbers, the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team still managed to come up with impressive results at a pair of weekend races in Austin, Texas.

Only Sean Sullivan, Ivan Stevic and Henk Vogels made the trip to Texas’ capital city to compete in Saturday’s AT&T Downtown Austin Criterium and Sunday’s Driveway Criterium.

In front of a huge crowd, Sullivan nearly pulled off a win Saturday jumping out of a three-man breakaway – only to be caught on the last lap of the 70-minute race.

Frank Travieso (AEG-Toshiba-Jet Network) took the win, as Stevic and Vogels finished third and fourth, respectively.

“We were hoping Sean would make it to the finish,” Stevic said. “It was really hard to control things with only three guys.”

Sunday’s race featured a smaller field but speeds were still high on the car and go-kart racing track where the race was held.

The 45-minute race featured a flurry of attacks. But it all came back together in the end with Stevic taking the win and Vogels placing third. The victory was Stevic's third of the season.

Labels: Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic, Sean Sullivan

Left to right: "Chepe" Garcia, Sean Sullivan, Ivan Stevic and Henk Vogels.
Austin, Texas — The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team will field one of the strongest squads for Saturday’s 2007 AT&T Austin Downtown Criterium, the fourth race of the USA CRITS Series.

Toyota-United’s lineup for the 70-minute race consists of Serbian national champion Ivan Stevic, Australian Tour de France veteran Henk Vogels, former Mexican national champion Jose Manuel “Chepe” Garcia and former Australian Under 19 national champion Sean Sullivan.

The four are responsible for five of Toyota-United’s 21 victories this season. Stevic scored one of the team’s most impressive wins on Stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia when he soloed over the top of Clocktower Hill in Rome, Ga., to notch the only victory by a domestic team at the ProTour race.

Toyota-United has been ranked either first or second all season in the National Race Calendar team standings. In addition to its 21 wins, the team has more than 60 podium finishes (first, second or third placings) to its credit and is rapidly closing in on the 100-win mark in just its second season as a professional cycling team.

Vogels was Toyota-United’s best finisher in Philadelphia, placing 13th. He was one of a number of racers that were delayed by a crash a couple hundred meters from the finish line.

“It’s frustrating when you ride six hours and everything comes unglued in the last kilometer,” Sullivan said about the end to the 156-mile (251 km) race that was won by former Toyota-United rider Juan Jose Haedo.

At the last USA CRIT Series race in Arlington, Va., June 2, Stevic narrowly lost the sprint to Rashaan Bahati (Rock & Republic Cycling Team). Toyota-United did not field any riders for the first two races of the series.

Toyota-United is one of the most fan-friendly teams in the pro peloton. Its riders wear their last names on the backs of their jerseys for easy identification (like other “mainstream” sports such as basketball, football and baseball). The team also has a fan club that boasts 20,000 members who receive discounts on team merchandise and apparel, as well as monthly e-mail newsletter and other special offers. For more information, visit www.toyota-united.com.

Labels: Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic, Jose Manuel-Garcia, Sean Sullivan

Toyota-United celebrates after Heath Blackgrove's stage win at Mt. Hood.
Reading, Penn. – Toyota-United, one of the top-ranked professional bicycling racing teams in the National Race Calendar standings, is among more than a dozen squads that will participate in the Commerce Bank Reading Classic on Thursday.

Toyota-United’s roster includes Australian Henk Vogels, a veteran of several Tours de France, as well as Serbian national champion Ivan Stevic, who finished second Saturday at the CSC Invitational in Arlington, Va.

More than 140 racers will compete in the race Thursday over a 75-mile, 11-lap circuit course that winds its way through the streets of Reading. On the final three laps, the course diverts the cyclists up the challenging Mt. Penn climb.

“The race organizers have made the race much tougher this year by making us climb Mt. Penn two more times than last year,” Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said. “That climb seemed to be the decisive factor in the race, so I would expect it will figure prominently again this time.”

Reading is the second stop of The Commerce Bank Triple Crown Series. On Sunday, Bernhard Eisel of the German T-Mobile squad won a rain-soaked, 85-mile race in Lancaster, Penn. The series concludes on Sunday with the Philadelphia International Championship, a grueling 156-mile race that is widely considered the single-most important bicycle race in North America.

Toyota-United has won 20 races this season and is the only domestic team to win stages at both the Amgen Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia. The second-year squad is also the only one in the U.S. with an official fan club. The Toyota-United membership team (www.toyota-united.com) boasts nearly 20,000 fans who have signed up to receive the team’s newsletter and purchase team merchandise and apparel at discounted prices.

Labels: Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic

Stevic led with 200 meters to go, only to be nipped at the line.
Arlington, Va. — Ivan Stevic of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team came within inches of winning the sprint finish Saturday at the 10th annual CSC Invitational.

It was a drag race from the final corner to the finish line, with Stevic being beaten by Rashaan Bahati (Rock & Republic Cycling Team) while Hilton Clarke (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team) was third.

“It was a long sprint and into a headwind, so it probably helped Rashaan that he was able to come from behind me,” Stevic said. "I'm happy for him and his team.”

Stevic’s finish was the second runner-up placing on the day for Toyota-United. At the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic in Oregon, Burke Swindlehurst and Justin England finished second and third, respectively, on Stage 5 at that National Race Calendar event.

Stevic, the reigning Serbian National Champion, said he received a perfect leadout from teammates Chris Wherry and Henk Vogels on the final lap of the 62-mile (100 km), 100-lap race that is billed as the “Hardest Crit in America.” The only glitch, Stevic said, was that he came around Vogels on the outside of the final turn, rather than the inside.

“I should have told Henk I was coming up on the inside,” Stevic said. “I can usually do the corners really tight, so I usually go to the inside. Rashaan saw my mistake and jumped, and there was no way to catch him.”

Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said he was pleased the team performed so well despite the absence of its top sprinter, Ivan Dominguez, who is recovering from a crash that injured his back and ribs.

"Ivan Stevic was really fantastic today," Jansen said. "We had only six guys in the race and we got second place, so I'm pretty happy about it."

Of Toyota-United’s six riders, two of them – Jose Manual Garcia and Caleb Manion – were not feeling 100 percent in the 90-degree heat. Garcia was suffering from stomach problems and Manion was experiencing back pain, Stevic said.

“Everyone did what they could today,” Stevic said. “With eight laps to go, I almost crashed and went all the way to the back of the bunch. But Chris (Wherry) came back and got me and took me right back to the front. We were very lucky that he was feeling good today.”

In the early going of the race, Victor Rapinski (Navigators Insurance) ventured off on a solo breakaway and was within 15 seconds of lapping the field on the five-turn, one-kilometer course through Arlington’s Clarendon district before several teams began working hard on the front.

Rapinski was eventually brought back and, in the closing laps, Toyota-United and Team CSC controlled the front to set up the bunch sprint.

“It looked like it was going to come down to a bunch sprint,” Jansen said, “so we played it that way.”

Labels: Harm Jansen, Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic

Atlanta – The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team picked up its fourth top five finish at the Tour de Georgia Sunday when Ivan Dominguez finished fourth in Stage 7’s circuit race through downtown Atlanta.

Dominguez had already placed fifth on Stage 1 and Stage 6 while teammate Ivan Stevic gave Toyota-United a victory on Stage 3 in Rome on Tuesday. That win helped Toyota-United become the only domestic team to win a stage of both the Tour de Georgia and the Amgen Tour of California two years running.

“I’m very satisfied,” Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said. “I think the guys made a big presence for themselves in this race. In all the stages where we thought we had a chance to win, we did a lot of work to control the stage.”

Like it did on nearly every stage, Toyota-United drove the chase to catch a two-man breakaway that threatened to spoil the day for the sprinters. After the escapees were run down inside the final 10 km, it was Juan José Haedo (Team CSC) who took the win at the end of the 66.8-mile (107.5 km) race in a time of two hours, 25 minutes and 30 seconds. Fred Rodriguez (Preditor-Lotto) was second and Sergey Lagutin (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team) placed third.

Dominguez said he mistimed his sprint on the long, uphill drag to the line.

“Yesterday I waited too long, today I went too soon,” he said.

It didn’t help that Dominguez lost one of his leadout men, Caleb Manion, in the final three kilometers when a rider in front of him locked up his wheel going into an off-camber turn.

“When Henk and I went into the turn, we just ran out of room,” Manion said. “There was nowhere to go, so I ended up going into the gutter and then over the handlebars into the crowd.”

Manion avoided serious injury, but did come away with some road rash.

In the final overall standings, Justin England was highest-placed for Toyota-United in 54th, followed by Ivan Stevic (56th), Chris Baldwin (57th), Manion (76th), Burke Swindlehurst (78th), Vogels (92nd) and Chris Wherry (96th).

“Toyota-United has stepped up to an international level in the 16 months or so it has been part of the sport,” Vogels said. “We were very, very strong all week and between us, CSC and Discovery, we controlled the race. I think we gained a great deal of respect.”

Labels: Henk Vogels, Ivan Dominguez

Richmond, Va. - Henk Vogel’s 12th place finish led the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team Saturday at the Inaugural U.S. Open Cycling Championships in Richmond, Va.

Canadian Svein Tuft (Symmetrics Cycling) soloed away from breakaway companion Pat McCarty (Team Slipstream Presented by Chipotle) in the final three miles to earn the victory in the 113-mile race from Williamsburg to Richmond. McCarty held off Alejandro Borrajo (Rite Aid) for second.

Besides Vogels, five other Toyota-United riders were among the 54 finishers: Sean Sullivan (18th), Ivan Stevic (27th), Ivan Dominguez (28th), Caleb Manion (29th) and Justin England (44th).

Vogels and Dominguez each found themselves in breakaways at some point during the race. Vogels was part of a group that never gained more than 30 seconds’ lead on the road to Richmond. Later, the Australian integrated himself into a three-man move that was off the front with five laps to go. But again, the gap never reached more than 30 seconds and Vogels’ escape ended with a flat tire.

Dominguez was part of a seven-rider group that tried to close the gap on McCarty when the Slipstream rider attacked with three laps to go. Instead, Tuft bridged across to McCarty and the pair quickly built a 39-second gap with two laps to go. Dominguez’s group was caught by the remnants of the pack with 5.5 miles to go, but Tuft and McCarty were already more than a minute up the road.

The dynamic I was worried about going into this race was that we would be in a position as the team to beat,” Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said. “So having the numbers at the end kind of put us at a disadvantage. Everyone else looked to us to do the chasing.”

Toyota-United’s Justin England said Stevic, Sullivan and Manion did what they could to close the gap and get Vogels and Dominguez in a position to win.

“We came up empty in the end, but we gave it a go,” he said.

The more-than-150 riders who started the race endured driving snow at the start that gave way to sunshine, only to have it start snowing again. Winds gusting to nearly 30 miles an hour buffeted the peloton, which stayed in intact until it reached the first of eight laps along a 5.5-mile circuit finish in Richmond. The race finished under sunny skies, with temperatures in the upper 30s.

“With the cold and the wind and the morning start, it made the race a lot harder,” Jansen said. “Had we had sunshine and warmer temperatures, it would have been much less harder.”

Labels: Caleb Manion, Henk Vogels, Ivan Dominguez, Ivan Stevic, Jose Manuel-Garcia, Justin England, Sean Sullivan

Ojai, Calif. – With his win Sunday at the fourth annual Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix, Ivan Dominguez delivered the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team a victory on the second anniversary of its founding.

Dominguez took the sprint at the end of the 55-lap, (88 km) race around a one-mile circuit through Libby Park in Ojai, Calif., to score his seventh win of the season and his third in a National Race Calendar event. It is Toyota-United’s eighth win of 2007 and solidifies its lead in the team classification of the NRC standings.

Toyota-United raced with only five riders Sunday as Serbian national road champion Ivan Stevic sat out the race with a sore knee. Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said Stevic was trying out some new pedals earlier in the week and is still getting adjusted to them.

“For only having five guys in the race, they just did an awesome job,” Jansen said. “We didn’t miss a move all day and it was a pretty active race. But our guys neutralized things pretty well.”

With 10 laps remaining, Toyota-United’s Henk Vogels rolled off the front with two other riders. The gap the trio quickly opened up forced the field to chase as Vogels’ teammates sat on.

“Having Henk up front was good because he put a lot of pressure on the other teams,” Dominguez said. “Plus, he can win a sprint on his own.”

When the three escapees were caught inside three laps to go, several teams moved to the front to prepare for a furious finish on the eight-turn course. Vogels and teammate Caleb Manion did the work on the final lap for Toyota-United – escorting Sean Sullivan and Dominguez to the foot of a 53-foot climb that spans two-tenths of mile.

From there, Sullivan led out Dominguez on the final trip up the hill and into the last corner. But Russell Downing (Health Net presented by Maxxis) wasn’t giving up, and passed Dominguez before the last turn.

“That was good for me,” Ivan said. “I was a little bit hungry from Redlands and he’s a good rider. I was really hoping for him to pass me so I could show him how fast I can go.”

Dominguez did just that, roaring past Downing to earn the win that makes him even more of a favorite in Saturday’s inaugural US Open Cycling Championships in Virginia.

The UCI 1.1-rated race is the second stop on the USA Cycling Professional Tour. It begins in colonial Williamsburg and finishes with circuits in the capital city of Richmond. NBC will provide same-day coverage from 2 to 4:30 p.m EDT.

Labels: Henk Vogels, Ivan Dominguez, Ivan Stevic