Team 7Up-Colorado Cyclist
By John Alsedek
It's not unusual for professional cyclists to move into team management
once they've hung up their wheels. However, the 7Up-Colorado Cyclist
team came into existence largely because of exactly the opposite happening:
a rider forming and managing his own team in order to allow him to compete
professionally.
Jeff Corbett began racing in his native South Carolina back in 1990.
After two years of competing with some success, but little in the way
of financial reward, he decided to take the adage "if you can't beat
'em, join 'em" to heart, and helped form his own squad: the Cycle Center/Children's
Hospital team (which, incidentally, is still alive and well in Columbia,
SC).
However, Corbett only got to reap the fruits of his labor for one
season - after graduating from the University of South Carolina (he
was a Communications major), he moved to California and spent the next
few years racing as a Category I, again largely unsupported. As a result,
he again found himself working at the business end of the sport, getting
involved in formation of the RBC racing team, which was sponsored in
its first season by Snapple Iced Tea. By 1996, he was getting some good
results in races in the U.S., Europe, and South America - including
three top-five stage finishes in the Tour of Guatemala, and was hoping
for a good offer to turn professional. However, the offer didn't come,
so Corbett decided to take matters into his own hands: "I decided the
only way I was going to get on a good pro team was to start my own."
Using his previous experiences with Cycle Center/Children's Hospital
and RBC, Corbett formed the Diet Rite Cola team with Scott McAfee in
1997. A low-budget operation with just four riders, Corbett, Frank Banfield,
Adam Livingston, and John Wike, the Diet Rite team was fairly successful
locally and at least competitive regionally. Wike was fourth in a stage
of the Redlands Classic, while Livingston ran off a string of second
places at the Tucson Bicycle Classic, but still times were tight.
In May, the quartet headed east to compete in the top US professional
events: Atlanta's First Union Grand Prix, and the CoreStates Cycling
Series. Despite cold and rainy conditions, Corbett, Livingston, and
Wike all finished the Atlanta race - Corbett had been with the lead
group before crashing near the finish. However, with, with limited financial
and technical support, plus having raced mostly criteriums and short
road races all season, they found themselves overwhelmed at the 156-mile
US Professional Road Championship in Philadelphia, and none of them
managed to finish. Still, Diet Rite Cola was satisfied with the team
and had planned to continue sponsorship in 1998, until budget cuts killed
their cycling program. However, it ultimately proved to be a blessing
in disguise. Scott McAfee's contact at Diet Rite called a friend at
7Up on the team's behalf and set up a meeting with 7Up's Southern California
bottler. The meeting went well, and they agreed to sponsor Corbett and
McAfee's team for the 1998 season.
That winter saw some restructuring take place: out went Banfield and
Wike, while Corbett added Californians Scott Cochran, Shawn Cronkhite,
Wayne Roth, and, briefly, Greg Walker. The 7Up team was looking forward
to a full pro schedule in '98, centered around competing in the CoreStates
series (now sponsored by First Union Bank) on the East Coast. However,
new UCI regulations proved to be a huge stumbling block. In the wake
of the Le Groupement and Force Sud disasters, where team sponsors pulled
out at mid-season and left riders without support or pay, the UCI had
instituted new team divisions and new regulations. To apply for a UCI
license, a team had to pay an exhorbitant license fee, plus place a
large sum of cash in escrow to ensure that riders would be paid even
if the team folded.
For a small team like 7Up, the UCI license was just too much: like
several other U.S.based teams, they went without. This meant that the
only way they could compete in events like the US Professional Championships
was as a 'composite team', meaning that if there were open spots in
the start list, they were allowed to compete wearing their team uniforms,
but listed as 'composite riders'. Still, the 7Up team had a decent season:
Livingston repeated Wike's fourth place finish in a stage of the Redlands
Classic, Cronkhite finished tenth in the Sea Otter Classic, and in the
team's biggest success of the year, newcomer Wayne Roth won a stage
and the overall in the Chums Classic Stage Race.
Meanwhile Corbett was putting his accumulated knowledge to work secure
sponsorship for 1999: "We had a lot of good results on regional
basis but not nationally - find other ways keep our sponsors happy."
The teams off-bike activities paid off in spades, as 7Up corporate headquarters
decided to take over sponsorship and give significant budget increase
boot. increased financial support allowed him upgrade talent by bringing
two riders who proved be invaluable squad: Clark Sheehan Anton Villatoro.
The addition of these two riders proved to be a godsend to the now
Colorado-based 7Up team in a number of ways. Sheehan was a former stage
winner in the Tour DuPont and top-three finisher in the US Professional
Championship, while Villatoro had ridden the 1996 Olympics and was just
coming off of three seasons of European racing with the US Postal Service
team. They brought with them an extensive amount of high-level racing
experience that the team had previously lacked: "Having both been on
major teams, they were able to bring a lot to the table - not just results,
but a more professional way of doing things on the bike and off." They
also both brought other qualities: the ability to positively motivate
their teammates; and a tremendous desire to succeed. Villatoro, after
working as a domestique for the likes of Lance Armstrong and Viatcheslav
Ekimov, saw an opportunity to ride as a leader on a team "When Team
7Up came together, I actually asked to get out of my '99 contract (with
US Postal) to ride with 7Up." Along with long-time US racing stalwart
Steve Speaks, winner of six stages in the Ruta Mexico and a former Euro-pro
himself with the Belgian Histor team, the reconstituted 7Up team began
getting the national-level results that had eluded them previously.
Both Sheehan and Villatoro won stages of Oregon's Tour of Willamette;
Sheehan was fourth overall in the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic and led
for two days, while Villatoro finished a strong eighth in the Pan-American
Road Race. However, the team's finest moment was in a race that had
proven beyond their capabilities in years before: the US Pro Championship
in Philadelphia. Both Sheehan and Villatoro acquitted themselves well
- Sheehan won the prestigious King of the Wall competition, while Villatoro
outsprinted a group of twelve that included three previous race winners
(Bart Bowen, Eddy Gragus, and George Hincapie) and a stage winner in
the 1999 Tour de France (Salvatore Commesso) to finish as the third
American and seventh overall.
7Up was pleased enough with the team to both renew their contract for
2000 and to increase their operating budget yet again. The financial
situation was further improved in October when, following two months
of negotiations prompted by Clark Sheehan, the Colorado Cyclist mail
order company signed on as the team's co-sponsor. Colorado Cyclist had
previously co-sponsored the Nutra-Fig and Comptel teams of John Wordin,
and had fielded its own squads in '98 and '99 (Sheehan had ridden for
Colorado Cyclist in 1998). The resulting 7Up-Colorado Cyclist team took
on a distinctly Colorado flavor, as he released three riders and replaced
them with a group of hot prospects from the '99 Colorado Cyclist team:
"I wanted a strong Colorado-based team with Colorado riders. I want
to try to bring back the 7-Eleven/Coors Light days, when Coloradoans
dominated the US scene and give Colorado a home team again."
The riders that Corbett has added to the core group of himself, Sheehan,
Speaks, and Villatoro include '99 National Amateur Road Champion Danny
Pate, Michael Creed, winner of a record 17 national titles as a junior,
and Kevin Monahan, a New Yorker who has finished on the podium the past
three years in the Criterium Nationals. In addition, there is espoir
David Zabriske, who has won two national time trial championships, as
well as the time trial stage in this year's Giro d'Primavera (Italy).
It's a promising squad that looks like a real up-and-comer for 2000.
This is not just because of their talent, but also because of their
cameraderie: "I know most teams have an employee/employer relationship
with their riders, but I prefer a more musketeer spirit - do what you
can for the team, and we'll do what we can for you. I like the riders
to give input on all issues, I don't always take it, but I appreciate
it. The pay in this sport is too low to be unhappy. You need to like
your job and the people you work with. We have that here and we like
and respect one another," says Corbett.
Co-leader Sheehan adds: "I'm really excited about the season and the
great group of guys we have....I don't know if I've ever been so motivated
for racing."
So where does 7Up-Colorado Cyclist want to go in 2000 and beyond?
"I'd like to keep growing at an even pace. Huge budget jumps mean huge
growing pains." They do not have plans to do any extensive racing in
Europe; it's not a priority to either 7Up or Colorado Cyclist, and the
team prefers to focus on, and help develop the American racing scene.
The team's ultimate goal is to become the top domestic-based team, much
as Coors Light was in its heyday.
That's a pretty lofty goal for a guy who ended up as a team boss almost
by default: "I never set out to be the manager of a pro team, I just
wanted to race my bike." But, given the talent Jeff Corbett has to work
with, it's not an unreasonable one, and it just might happen sooner
than even he thinks.
Team Roster:
Jeff Corbett Additional Sponsors: Campagnolo |