December 17, 2005 – One of the most exciting aspects of Canadian cycling for the past few years has been the growth and success of the BC-based Symmetrics team. After an incredibly successful 2005, which included havingthe top Canuck at the Tour de Beauce Bell, Road National titles, and a slew of wins both in Canada and the USA, the all-star Canadian team has even more plans for 2006. Last week, Symmetrics’ co-owner, Kevin Cunningham (Kevin and brother Mark are partners), took time to speak with Pedal about the team, its genesis, and some of the plans for next year. This week, the interview continues with more thoughts about this year, next year, and even more about what it’s like being at the helm of one of the biggest success stories of Canadian cycling. Here is part two of this three-part interview.

Kevin, a lot happened in 2005 for the team. What were some of the highlights and low points this past season?

Kevin Cunningham: This was our first year with our new riders. Eric Wohlberg, Jacob Erker and Cory Lange – these three brought us many years of top-level racing and lots of knowledge of how to win bike races. We also had signed Christian Meier, Jeff Sherstobitoff, and Bradley Fairall -these three were young riders with limited racing experience at a UCI and NRC level. We wanted to balance out the young talent we had with proven Canadians that could give great leadership. After Redlands in March we knew we could compete with the best of the North American teams. It was clear Health Net was a step up from the rest of the teams but we felt we could race with the rest of them on any day. Having so many strong TT guys we also felt our strength was in tough stage races and the majority of our best results came during hard stage races. We won our first NRC race this year when Svein Tuft took the GC at Mt Hood in May.

We wanted to do Mt Hood to prepare for Beauce and the plan paid off. As a Canadian team our major goals were Beauce and the Nationals. What we saw at Mt. Hood gave the whole team a ton of confidence going into Beauce. We won three of five stages at Mt Hood and Svein and Christian were first and second in the TT – we ended up with five guys in the top nine in the TT. You know it’s a good sign when Eric Wohlberg, who was sick, was our fourth fastest guy in the TT at Mt Hood. Even when Eric is sick he is still one of the best there is. Mt Hood also had some great climbing with the final stage finishing at a ski resort. When Svein was able to use his team the whole day and basically stay with the main climbers we knew he had a real chance of winning Beauce.

So for me the major highlights were Beauce and the Nationals. Our race preparation leading up to Beauce gave us confidence that we could contend. One of my low points was the Road Nationals which I can get into later.

Tell us more about Beauce. You had the leader’s jersey, some great stage finishes, and really impressed the field and spectators with the strength of the squad. What were you thinking going in, and did you exceed your expecations?

KC: We knew going in we had a really great chance of winning this race. The TT was longer (27K) and it gave our TT guys a chance to put real time on the field. We wanted to make sure we had either Svein or Eric close to the front of the race going into the TT. After the first stage when Svein got himself into the winning break our strategy from that point was clear. Eric took complete control of the team and team meetings.The plan became clear – we raced to protect Svein. What that meant for us was no one got into any moves without Svein. If there wasn’t a true GC threat in a move we let other teams do the work and waited. All the teams had to deal with brutally cold windy weather which made it hard enough but when you include the roads and hard racing it was a tough week. We also felt our major competition came from Navigators as it was clear they had a very strong team and Nathan O’Neill was riding like 10 men.

So we sat and waited in the first few stages until the TT. Svein had about a minute in the GC on O’Neill going into the TT so we felt we had a great chance of taking the jersey that day. That is what happened as Nathan won the stage and Svein was about 50 seconds back but was still leading by five seconds. Svein had one of his very best TT rides of his career. He used an SRM that day and his average wattage was 460! Christian also had a great ride and took fifth in the stage. I remember coming back from the TT with Eric and he told me “Kevin, I know you are excited to have the jersey but we would be better off if the Navigators had it”

You see Eric knew what was coming and I didn’t. That night was the Crit. It was my first time at Beauce so I hadn’t seen the Crit course with the tough hill. Our team plan was to try and let a group of non-GC threats get up the road and lap the field as quickly as possible. That way we could rest our tired legs from the TT and get ready for the next day in Quebec City. That plan didn’t happen as the Navigators forced us to ride a semi-hard tempo all night. They kept putting guys in all the moves and if we let those moves go it would have put the Navigators in an even stronger position.

When we went to Quebec City we had to deal with some very strong headwinds. This was a fantastic course but our undoing was the strong headwinds. We were riding tempo at the front all day and the strong wind wore our guys down. It was really hard to ride tempo at the front for 6K each lap into that wind and then have to turn and make the very difficult climb. It was clear Navigators was leaving it until the last time up the hill as they basically sat on our wheels and stayed out of the win. With all our guys shot from the headwinds Svein didn’t have anyone left except for Andrew Pinfold and Cory Lange. Nathan O’Neal just waited and put in a huge effort up the last climb to the finish. He took the jersey from us by seven seconds. At the end of the race I realized that Eric was correct. Looking back we had a much better chance of winning the overall if Navigators had to do what we did. We could have tired them out and then pounced on them. Still for us it was another great step for our riders and team. We came out of Beauce knowing that when a team sticks together and believe in each other results do come.

You said the Nationals were a low point – but you came away with some jerseys and medals…?

KC: It is hard to be disappointed with the Nationals this year. We won three National Championships and on the men’s side we took seven of a possible 15 podium spots. However, when we left Kamloops the men’s road race was still stinging. We wanted that race and we felt we could win on such a hard course. Sometimes no matter how hard you try and how you play your cards things just don’t work out. We had a ton good feelings going into that race. Svein and Eric had just taken first and second in the TT and Christian Meier and Brad Fairall were first and third in the Espoir TT and Andrew Pinfold had just lost by half a wheel in the Crit so we knew we had the horsepower to take control.

When the road race started it was damn fast. I was in the team car both years at Kamloops and this year the first 40K was ballistic. The field was cut down to about 50 guys after about 20K of racing. When you see guys like Charles Dionne getting dropped on the climb you know it’s fast. We had already lost Andrew Pinfold with a broken chain but we still had all our guys ready when the action happened. When the winning move came we had five guys of about 14 – Cory, Svein, Eric, Christian and Jacob were all there. We just wanted to ride and watch and see who was strong and who we had to keep and eye on. It was obvious Ryder Hesjedal was strong as he was showing his strength early on. He pushed the pace every time up the climb which was splitting the field. We were content to let him do the work. The other guys we knew were strong were Dom Perras, Peter Wedge and Andrew Randell.

I have to say the two guys that tactically raced the best in my opinion were Francois Parisian and Ryan Roth. Both stayed under the radar screen until they needed to. Parisian without a doubt was the strongest man that day and deserved the win. He was just so strong there was little we could do.

About halfway through the race we felt we needed to change the momentum of the break as all the other riders were looking for us to do the work (since we had five guys). Cory got on the radio and told us he didn’t have good legs so he was going to attack to try and force others to ride. Eric liked the idea so Cory took off on the hill. They only guy who responded was Parisian and the two quickly put 1:30 on the field. When I got up to see Cory he told me he didn’t have many more K’s in him. As I was falling back Parisian waved me up to his wheel. He asked if he could have a feed and then with a big smile and a laugh asked if we had Ryder Hesjedal and Perras riding in the break. I knew at that point we were in trouble. On the next climb Cory was dropped by Parisian and he was now solo. We sat to see what would happen and the break didn’t respond. Parisian’s time grew to just over 3 minutes with 50K left. That meant we were forced to put our guys at the front and bring it back. The race was playing right into Perras, Randell’s and Ryder’s hands.

The hard decision of putting Christian, Jacob and Svein in a rotation was made. We saved Eric because of the four remaining we felt he had the best chance of winning. It was hard to put Christian in the mix as we felt he had a great chance to win the Espoir, but the team goal came first. I still remember Eric calling me up and saying we have to ride Christian. Christian went willingly to the front and gave up all his chances at a National title. This is what teammates do for each other. We started to close the time gap on Parisian so we decided we were going to bring the time down to about 1:30 and then call off the chase as we wanted to see what others would do and we also wanted Parisian to burn more energy. However, that cagey guy sat up on the climb once we got the time to about 1:40. The break rolled back up to him near the top of the climb and we now had three guys who were now going to have a hard time to finish.

Eric still felt strong but we knew our chances were not good. Parisian waited and then went again, and again no one responded as they looked to us to chase! This time we wouldn’t react as we felt we needed to race for second and no one else was willing to help. That is what happens when you control the break. The next time up the hill Christian, Jacob and Svein started to lose contact with the break that now only had four guys in it. Eric was there and we felt confident that if he crested the hill with Perras, and Hesjedal the final time he would take them in the sprint. He did take the sprint for second easily with Parisian winning in fantastic style.

At the end of the day we took second with Eric, and Christian took second in the Espoir, but we must tip our hat to Parisian. He simply was the strongest and his tactics turned out to be the best. Ryder rode like we expected he would. He put in huge efforts early on but at the end we didn’t feel he was the strongest threat that day.

Finally, I am happy to see Parisian riding for TIAA – Cref. In my opinion this is a great program. They seem to have excellent management, great sponsors and riders that take many risks. I wish him great success in 2006 as he is a very talented Canadian athlete with an excellent future in the sport.

Looking ahead to 2006, what other changes do you see? Last week you spoke about some of the increases in sponsors such as Norco and Shimano, but what other logistical or strategies do you see in place? What about new events or even racing Europe?

KC: One of our goals is to take this team overseas and that will be happening in 2006. With our third place UCI ranking for the Americas, we are receiving invitations from many areas of the world. I am excited about this as it gives our riders even greater opportunities to improve, and better opportunities to expose our current sponsors products along with recruiting additional sponsors.

Someone with your drive must have a long-term focus – can you tell us what is it?

KC: Well this is driven by our success in finding additional sponsors. I feel with a budget that continues to grow we can continue to sign additional Canadians and take this team to more great races in Canada, the US and around the world. If you look at the strongest cycling nations their best athletes always come from a great trade team system. As a nation if we want to develop our athletes we need to develop more “Pro Teams” that in turn can give athletes better opportunites. A strong Canada Cup schedule will hopefully be the start of this as the more we can race in Canada at a high level the better it is for up and coming athletes. One of my goals is to see other teams follow what we are trying to do. It is good for the sponsors who can expose their products and services while providing Canadian riders with well-financed teams to race for.

Stay tuned for next week’s final segment of this exclusive interview where Cunningham will speak more of future plans, and also share little-known facts about the Symmetrics Cycling Team.