Brooke Miller

Coach: Bllly Innes

Manager: Linda Jackson

Sponsor: TIBCO/To The TOP

Career Highlight: 2008 US Road and Crit National Champion

Favourite event: Stage races

Occupation: Cyclist

Time in the Sport: 8 years, 5th year pro

Bike: LOOK 595

Cycling Tribe: Brooke, Thank you for your time. In 2008 you claimed The United States criterium and road national Championships, how has this record breaking season impacted you and your cycling?

Honestly, each season has been all part of my bigger goal of the 2012 Olympics, which has been my career focus since I decided to take the sport seriously.  2008 was a great season in terms of winning the two titles, but it was all part of a bigger picture of international competition.  It was thrilling to win and to wear the stars and stripes – but it just gave me more resolve to wear the flag and represent my country in world championships and in London as opposed to impacting my career in any other way.  It was, I guess, just another exciting step along an already exciting path.

Photo By Logan Pierce

Cycling Tribe: What are your individual and team goals for 2010?

For me, my 2010 goals are nearly all based across the pond.  We will be doing the spring classics and three world cups as TIBCO and that is thrilling!  Flanders is my all-time favourite race and I would love to win it.  It is a race that haunts me when I train and sometimes when I sleep.  All the European races are big for me, but Flanders is the king.  I also always have a special spot for Philly (Liberty Classic), am looking to win there, and the big season goal is to race Worlds with the US National Team.  As for team goals: we have a lot, but the biggest goal is for us to make an impact when we go over to Europe.  We race every race we enter to win and we have some phenomenal riders.  So, we are going to turn some heads over there – and that is the plan.

Cycling Tribe: What would it mean to you to compete and challenge for a medal in London 2012?

For me, London is really everything in my career.  When I was a 12 year old kid and playing volleyball, I had a dream of becoming an Olympian.  As soon as that goal became a remote possibility for me in cycling, I was full bore in that pursuit.  Everything I have done since I decided to take cycling seriously back in 2006 has been in the direction of working toward that one goal, that one race, that one day.  I can think of no greater honour than to wear my country’s flag proudly and compete in the games… and I will race for one place only: that top step.

Cycling Tribe: You used to be a rock solid volleyball player. Do you miss the sport? Is this where you developed your competitive edge?

I would say that volleyball was most certainly not where I developed my competitive edge, but where I finally released it!  I grew up a tomboy and was always racing the boys on the street and every single thing that I did was a competitive sport.  I was hyper-competitive: much more so than I am today!  I was so competitive that it was a detriment, as I could not turn it off!  Volleyball helped me hone my competitive edge and it was my first true passion in life.  I can truthfully say that I do not, however, miss it.   I have moved on with other chapters in my life.  Volleyball was a complex relationship for me.  It was like a slightly dysfunctional love affair.  I was passionate and loved it deeply, but it was emotionally, physically and mentally hard for me.  Volleyball beat me up and broke me down.  It was a tremendous time for me, and one of deep personal growth.  Playing on scholarship through college made it a job and it really was a hard job. It is a wonderful sport, however, and I will always cherish those memories as of any first love – but I am now in a different place in my life.

Cycling Tribe: You also work on software development in your spare time. Can you tell us a bit more about this?

Haha!  I am a closet nerd.  Well, maybe not so in the closet in my nerdiness.  Basically, I have to keep my brain active.  I am always doing something.  I am training full time and find things that are interesting to dabble in to keep me mentally stimulated.  My mantra is that you have to exercise your mind as much as your body.  I earned a Ph.D. in biology and spent a lot of time doing lab work and analysing data.  I realized that there are a lot of inefficiencies in lab work that could be helped with some better designed software.  Since there was nothing on the market, I learned how to do some database building and some programming to help make something that would help others be better, more efficient scientists.  I have tabled it for a bit in the last year or so, but just recently dusted off one of my software packages and sent it to a friend of mine who is working with it.  For me, it was a chance to work on two important mental outlets: my creative side and my analytical side.  Doing the software was creative in coming up with layouts and visual presentations of the user interface that were pleasing.  But it was also a fun analytical game to make it all work.  Very much like little logic puzzles.  You KNOW that you want it to do X, so you have to figure out how to make it do X and have it work as simple as possible.  Programming in that sense really is like solving fun little games.

Photo By John Pierce

Cycling Tribe: Can you describe a typical week of training?

Sure.  Sleep.  Eat.  Ride.  Eat.  Sleep.  Shower in there somewhere.  Sleep.  I am kidding.  For me, I don’t do that much volume compared to a lot of other riders.  Being that I am a sprinter, I really do believe that my physiology is different.  I can do a big load of intensity and walk out at the end of the week fine – but give me a few weeks of big volume, and I get tired!  Most of my teammates are the other way around.  My training is highly varied week by week, month by month – but for the most part, it is a combination of building base miles, basic endurance, longer sustained efforts and sprint specific work.  I train my weaknesses and work on climbing and sustained efforts: 15-, 20- or even 30-min efforts, (sometimes one-hour efforts), but I always make sure to keep my sprint honed, too.  My sprint work will be a mix of different sprint efforts: 5-, 8-, 15- or 20-sec, in addition to 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-min efforts.  The start of the week will often be a bit mellow and I will usually have a big long day on Wednesday, and then taper back some of the volume but sub in some more intensity.  But it really just depends on where I am in a training block, what I am prepping for and what time of the year it is.

Cycling Tribe: How do you feel about your form leading into the European season?

I can truthfully say that I am the strongest that I have ever been.  I have never been happier before in my life and struggled with some personal challenges in the last two years.  All of that is behind me now and each day seems better than the one before.  For me, the bike is an extension of my happiness and my love.  Even in the rainy, cold winter training days this year, I was always happy to be on my bike and never had a winter mental slump.  And it shows.  I am happy, I am healthy, I am strong.  Being happy to the core and loving life so much makes it a lot easier to really push on the bike.  I train with power and have regularly been thinking that my power meter is broken because I am doing things that I have never done before.  Now I know though that it is not broken…I have just broken through.

Cycling Tribe:Brooke, Thanks so much for your time and best of luck this season.

Thanks!  And it was great talking with you!

April 1, 2010

Brisbane, Australia – The Fly V Australia Pro Cycling Team has been picked to win the 2010 National Racing Calendar team classification by VeloNews magazine.

Fly V Australia is ranked No. 1 of the 13 teams evaluated by the magazine’s editorial staff in the May issue (on newsstands now). The second-year, Australian continental squad was judged to be strongest in criteriums, climbing and stage racing.

Writes VeloNews: “A major win at a race like Battenkill or Philadelphia is well within Fly V Australia’s ability. All NRC stage races are prime targets, while a stage win at either the Amgen Tour of California or the Tour of Missouri would be icing on the cake.”

The story mentions the unique bond that holds the team together and has already led to 18 wins this season, including overall victories by Ben Day at the Redlands Bicycle Classic and San Dimas Stage Race. Last year, Fly V Australia won 94 races, including 44 in North America.

“‘Mateship’ isn’t a term most Americans are familiar with, but for Fly V Australia team boss Chris White, it’s the glue that holds his team together — so much so that the word is printed inside the collar of the team’s jerseys,” the article reads. “A former racer turned accountant, White built the team in 2007 with the ultimate goal of developing the first Australian ProTour team. It’s a slow but steady road to the top, and in 2010, as in 2009, that road goes through North America.”

Owned and operated by Pegasus Racing Pty Ltd., Fly V Australia is predominantly made up of Australia’s most talented cyclists and aims to be part of the PRO Tour and race in the Tour de France by 2012. White said the magazine’s ranking is pleasing in that it is from an independent source.”

“It’s one thing to receive accolades and encouragement before the job is done but ultimately the score board will tell the story.  We have set ourselves stretch goals as a team and its now up to us to deliver on those targets.” White said.

VeloNews magazine is the self-proclaimed “Journal of Competitive Cycling” and billed as North America's most trusted source for information about the individuals, events, and equipment that comprise the world of bicycle racing.

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Friday March 26, 2010

Redlands, Calif. – Ben Day said he put pressure on himself to successfully repeat his victory in the prologue of the 26th annual Redlands Bicycle Classic. But the Fly V Australia rider was quick to add he would not have had it any other way.

Day won Thursday’s uphill, 3.1-mile (5 km) Sun Time Trial race in 9 minutes and 16 seconds, two seconds faster than Carter Jones (Jelly Belly Cycling presented by Kenda). Jones’s teammate, Kiel Reynen, was  
third, another two seconds back.

Photo Courtesy of Fly V Australia

“I went in as the favorite and that adds a bit of pressure, but I kind of drew on that today,” Day said. “I didn’t win by much but I'm really, really happy to win.”

The victory was the 16th of the season for Fly V Australia, a second-year continental team that aims to achieve ProTour status and one day represent Australia in the Tour de France. At the San Dimas Stage Race last week, Day also won the prologue and successfully defended his lead through to the end of the three-day race.

“Last week, I was surprised that my legs were feeling so good,” Day said. “Today, I even had a little bit left in the tank at the end.”

But the 31-year-old native of Brisbane, Australia, said he didn’t realize he had won until he rode his De Rosa Formula time trial bike back to the start area – where his Fly V Australia teammates and staff members were waiting to congratulate him.

“The boys were there with their arms in the air to congratulate me,”  Day said. “The guys are all great.”

By virtue of his win on a course that gained 680-feet (207 meters) of elevation, Day also earned the red jersey as leader of the Best Climber competition.

Fly V Australia Director Sportif Henk Vogels said the team is confident it can defend the lead in the Stage 1 City of Beaumont Road Race. Friday’s 105.7-mile (170 km) race consists of one lap around a 35.7-mile loop, followed by four laps of a 17.5-mile circuit.

“We have a really strong team,” Vogels said. “We'll do it like we did last week. We'll put a few guys on the front and save a few guys on the back. As fast as Ben went up the hill today and last week, I don't think he'll have a problems at all tomorrow.”

— Fly V Australia —

Wed April 7th, 2010

Brisbane, Australia – The Fly V Australia Pro Cycling Team will be part of this year’s star-studded field at the Amgen Tour of California.

The Australian continental squad is one of 16 teams that will compete in the eight-day, 800-mile (1,287 km) event from May 16-23.

Joining Fly V Australia in the field are 9 teams from the United States, 5 from Europe and 1 each from Canada and Australia. Three-time champion Levi Leipheimer is back to defend his title, helped by seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.

Team Owner Chris White said the prestige and publicity that goes along with competing in the UCI category 2.HC race – the highest for a cycling event in the United States – makes it one of the team’s primary events on its 2010 race calendar. More than two million people turned out to watch the race last year.

“We are looking forward to going head-to-head with the best teams and riders in the world,” White said. “This is the biggest race of the year for our team and a great test for our riders.  Given the stature of the Amgen Tour of California the race will not only test the riders but will also provide us with an opportunity to further our journey towards the PRO Tour."

White went on to say, “With our strong view on North America and the stature of the Amgen Tour of California we believe that it is the door way for the Team to the Grand Tours of Europe.”

Fly V Australia has already experienced its share of early-season success, winning 18 races – including the Redlands Bicycle Classic and San Dimas Stage Race. Redlands winner Ben Day is the leader in the National Racing Calendar standings and joined Jonathan Cantwell, Bernie Sulzberger and Phil Zajicek on the team’s Tour of California roster last year. This year’s eight-man roster for the race will be announced in the coming weeks.

V australia, the Fly V Australia’s team’s primary sponsor, has an agreement with the team’s management company, Pegasus Racing Pty Ltd, to sponsor the team through 2011. V australia is the international airline of Virgin Blue, and was launched in February 2009 by Virgin Group Chairman and Virgin Blue major shareholder Sir Richard Branson. The airline operates nonstop, round-trip flights originating in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Los Angeles, Fiji, Thailand and South Africa.

V australia is also sponsor of the most difficult stage in the race’s five-year history. Stage 6 on Friday, May 21 traverses a 135-mile (217 km) course from Pasadena to Big Bear that includes more than 12,000 feet of climbing and a mountain top finish.

 

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March 23, 2010 - Media Release

San Dimas, California –Fly V Australia successfully defended Ben Day’s lead in the final stage of the 2010 San Dimas Stage Race. The win builds confidence around the Team’s approach to the 2010 season and future goals.

As an International Australian Team, Fly V Australia has a goal to be part of the UCI PRO Tour. Team management sees the US racing as a positive step towards attainment of the Team goals. “Team performances and the successes achieved individually such as Ben’s overall win will help drive the Team closer to our objectives.” Said team Managing Director Chris White. White went onto say, “When we assessed our 2009 performances we concluded that to demonstrate year on year improvement one area in which we needed to focus on was winning more Tours. This win by Ben certainly gets us
on the right pathway to achieving this objective.”

Ben Day paid respect to his team mates, “We showed over the last three days through our collective strength that we could close out the overall win against a red hot field stacked full of talent and depth. It was a pleasure riding with the boys; my only cause for concern was for Darren Rolfe who we lost through a crash midway through stage 2. He will make a speedy recovery and we wish him well.”

Racing continues in a few days with the Redlands Tour where Team Fly V australia will continue building for future objectives.



Photo: Brian Hodes www.veloimages.com

www.pegasusracing.com.au