For a story on the Health Net team in the upcoming issue of VeloNews I had the pleasure of speaking to Mike Sayers this week for the first time this season. Long the unsung worker on the Mercury team, Sayers has taken his act to the new Health Net squad after the dissolution of Mercury. But it almost didn’t happen, Sayers said.

“Basically, I told [Health Net] I was retired in December,” Sayers said.

In a winter that he called “poor and frustrating,” Sayers got tired of hearing the same things from prospective teams.

“I talked to every team,” he said. “It was always the same story: Take it or leave it, no questions, no ifs, ands or buts.”

The management of the Health Net team, on the other hand asked Sayers, “What do you need to get through this year on a monetary basis?” he recalled.

“They said it’s going to be difficult to do this, but then they started throwing out ideas, and my sense was, they really wanted this to happen, as opposed to the other teams,” said Sayers.

So Sayers signed on, and he brought along some of the Mercury way of doing things.

“The philosophy I brought to the team was the philosophy we had at Mercury: We’re gonna go to the races, we’re going to race, we’re going to contribute to the racing, and if we go down in flames, we’re going to do that, instead of just sitting there and taking it,” he said. “Too many teams out there just sit there and take it.

“The way we raced at Mercury was a good way of racing, and it produced success. Even before Gord [Fraser] got here, I thought we could have success,” Sayers said.

But it has proven to be the addition of Fraser, right after the Tour de Langkawi and just before the start of the U.S. season, that has jump-started the success of the team, with Fraser picking up three stage wins at the Pomona Valley Classic, a stage at the Tucson Bicycle Classic and this past weekend’s McLane Pacific Grand Prix in Merced.

“I was hoping, my best-case scenario, the highest we could have hoped for was to win one stage at Pomona and win one day at McLane,” said Sayers. “If we did that we would have already exceeded expectations.

“I think we’re exceding many expectations,” he added. “And we’re gonna ride the wave as long as we can.”

Sayers also shared a few other thoughts on a number of topics.

On the competition in the U.S. road scene: “I’m a realist. I know that Saturn is the strongest team in America, and [Chris] Horner is the strongest guy in America. Our goal is not to go head-to-head with those guys. Our goal is to get victories where we feel we have a realistic chance.… My prediction [for the next month] is: Horner, Horner, Horner.”

On Mercury director John Wordin: “Wordin always pushed the envelope with us. Sometimes he had more confidence in us than we had. I want to try to do the same thing.”

On Fraser being the team’s main guy: “It’s the same philosophy we had at Mercury. We rode for Gord at Mercury a lot – 90 percent of the time.”

Sayers isn’t alone in heaping praise on Horner. Health Net rider-director Kevin Klein said after McLane that “Horner was riding like five guys. He’s just unbelievable. He’s gotta be worth at least five men.”

Even Saturn assistant general manager Giana Roberge was impressed at McLane. “He is so fit, and thin, and strong right now,” she said.

On the women’s side, Roberge was happy about her teams two wins in Merced (Ina Teutenberg in the criterium and Manon Jutras in the road race), but knew that Saturn faced a tough task ahead at Redlands and Sea Otter. “T-Mobile’s very strong, and we haven’t even seen Kimberly [Bruckner] yet. We saw Genevieve [Jeanson] at Pomona, and she’s stronger, if possible, than in the past. Hopefully, between us and [T-Mobile] and Diet Rite, we can handle Genevieve.”

According to Health Net’s Klein, a couple of riders from another D-3 team were quoted on the Web and in a couple of other sources as saying that Fraser “is all washed up and lost his snap, and should just retire.”

“I don’t think other people were taking us seriously,” said Klein. “I’ve heard comments in the pack that ‘Oh, you’ve only got one good rider.’”

Fraser, though, shrugged off the various comments. “There were reports of this in the Internet, and I was wondering about the source, but it was quickly disspelled,” he said.

“If it was true or not, it definitely made me more motivated [in training]. I can’t get any more motivated to race; I’m switched on no matter what.”

Final note on Fraser and Sayers. The changes this year don’t end with their new team. Fraser is due to become a father in October, and Sayers in engaged to be married in November.

What to watch for:

The season’s in full swing, with the Solano Bicycle Classic continuing through the weekend, followed by Redlands, which runs Tuesday, April 2 through Sunday, April 6, followed by Sea Otter, April 9-12.