They’re Building a Cycling Dynasty : Squaw Valley Team’s 5-Year Plan Sets Wheels in Motion

MAMMOTH LAKES â€”  In team sports, a franchise can have a good season through acquisitions brought by key trades or free agency. Top-dollar contracts and a winning record might be enough to persuade a star veteran to change his uniform and give his new team a short-term boost.

Dynasties, however, are built through player development.

Meet Plymouth-Reebok, the Squaw Valley cycling squad that, at least in the minds of its riders, is building a cycling dynasty. By most accounts, its junior program is the farm team of the present and, if all goes as planned, the pro team of the future.

“This is really the up-and-coming team, no matter what level you’re at,� said Mike Engelman, a professional rider on the senior tour who joined Plymouth-Reebok in June. “I like the organization and the commitment--Tour de France by 1992.�

Quite possibly the best of the Plymouth-Reebok bunch, and one who plans to be on that Tour de France squad, is Daryl Price, the overall leader by 34 seconds after three stages of the Whiskey Creek stage race, the first of three events in this summer’s Bud Light Mammoth Cycling Classic.

Price won Wednesday’s individual time trial, finished second Thursday in the 64-mile second stage, a road race beneath the peaks of the Eastern Sierra held 25 miles north of this resort town, and won again Friday in the 49-mile road race from Bishop to Mammoth Lakes with a time of 2 hours 24 minutes 37 seconds. The climb is nearly 5,000 feet.

Earlier this month, the 18-year-old cyclist from Santa Cruz won the national junior road race final in Boulder, Colo., with a sprint in the last mile.

“I knew that I was one of the riders that could win (the national final)� Price said. “Confidence is important, and I thought I was riding better than everybody else.�

Confidence and riding better than everybody else are becoming habit for Price, who predicted that he should have the Whiskey Creek Stage Race in hand with a decent performance in today’s 117-mile fourth stage. He is also banking on that confidence and riding ability to make him a top senior rider when he moves up a category next season.

“You could really ask anyone, Daryl’s one of the top six junior riders in the nation,� said Warren Gibson, Plymouth-Reebok’s coach, director and dynasty builder. “We probably have three of the top six in the nation with Daryl, Paul Willerton and Frank McCormack.�

Willerton, who arrived here early Wednesday morning from the Junior World Championships in Italy, was forced to pull out of the Whiskey Creek event when he became ill in the middle of the second stage. McCormack and three other Plymouth-Reebok teammates are competing in a race in Boston, where Plymouth-Reebok is a major sponsor.

With only seven pro riders in its program--Engelman and one other are riding Whiskey Creek--Plymouth-Reebok’s strategy is to concentrate on its junior program while the current top professional teams, such as 7-Eleven, enjoy success today.

Gibson said that the team is being built--with a training regimen supplied by Greg LeMond, last year’s Tour de France champion--around Willerton and Price, with support from such other team riders as Mike Anderson, Chris Sheehan and Darin Dewsnup.

“Except for Daryl and Paul, we’re really taking guys on the five-yard line who are ready to score, not just the top riders,� Gibson said. “We’ve found that the very best thing to do is take guys who want to work hard.

“We’re not looking to go out and build a mercenary team. We’re not going to go out and say to the best riders ‘Here’s $30, ride for us.’ We can’t offer that, but we can offer a good program and a lot of hard work.�

Price, who earlier this year was given a chance to move from 7-Eleven’s junior to senior team, said he decided he likes the five-year plan Gibson has laid out for his charges.

“This team has more growth,� Price said. “It’s a better-run junior program. The pros on 7-Eleven are the ultimate, but they don’t look at their junior program as needing that much support.

“Plymouth-Reebok looks at its junior team as very important. We have our own team mechanic, our own masseuse. We’re very well taken care of.�

That Plymouth-Reebok has grown so quickly in three years is rather remarkable. It has been helped in part by 7-Eleven’s move from Northern California to Wisconsin, but it has benefited mainly from displaying its commitment to junior cycling.

“We started out as a group of riders that just wanted to do something together,� Gibson said. “Now we can afford to be pretty selective. Whether you get in is pretty much by performance. We have a lot of people who want to be with us.�

And once a rider is with Plymouth-Reebok, his performance is likely to improve.

“I’ve improved more this year than in any other year,� said Price, who began competitive cycling six years ago. “It’s a stronger team. I’m more mature physically. Tactically, we’re just more capable of winning.�

The winning may become more difficult for Price next year, when he moves to the senior tour, but he says he’s prepared for it.

“I’ve already ridden some senior events, and done very well,� he said. “It’s the intensity of the competition more than the level.�

And although the Olympics are just a year away, neither Price nor any of his teammates is likely to be there.

“Probably all the top amateurs in America are going to be professionals next year,� Price said. “Not everybody’s staying for the Olympics. There probably won’t be an Olympics with what’s going on (in South Korea). Nobody wants to bank on that and then be left out.�

In other divisions, Roy Knickman of Toshiba-Look retained his overall lead in the men’s senior pro-am category with a fourth-place finish in the third stage. Knickman leads Doug Smith by 40 seconds.

James Urbonas of 10-Speed Drive nosed out Knickman and 11 other riders at the finish to win the third stage. All were given times of 2:14:44.

In the women’s division, Tricia Walters of 7-Eleven sprinted to her second-straight stage victory, just beating overall leader Meg Gordon of Chemical Bank. Both finished in 2:44:07. After three stages, Gordon, who won the prologue by nearly 2 minutes, leads Walters by 1 minute 42 seconds.