Oakland, CA - The Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis begins the Tour of Missouri Monday with a distinction no other team has earned: a fifth consecutive USA Cycling NRC Team Championship.

"This year was just like the previous four," said Mike Tamayo, who took over as the directeur sportif of Health Net Presented by Maxxis this season after assisting Jeff Corbett in 2007. "When we started the season, we didn't set out to win the NRC title. We went to races to win, not to chase points. We won a lot of big races, and that put us in position to win the team title again.

"I'm really proud of this team," he continued. "The squad was a bit smaller this year, and while we were still considered a strong contender for the title, I don't think we were the odds-on favorite to win the title like we may have been the past few years. But this is a great bunch of guys, and they really came together and rode selflessly all season."

For the Tour of Missouri, September 8-14, the team will be led by Australian Rory Sutherland, who also officially wrapped up his second consecutive individual NRC title with the conclusion of NRC series on Saturday. Though, in reality, he all but wrapped up the individual title after a remarkable string of stage race wins in May and June that included the Joe Martin Stage Race, The Mt. Hood Classic and the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

Sutherland will be the team's main GC threat, but he'll be supported by a strong squad that will be hunting stage wins all week. One of those riders will be John Murphy, who enjoyed a break-out season in 2008 that propelled him well into the top 10 of the NRC individual classification. He has shown his strength in bunch sprints and in breaks all season. Along with finishing a strong 2nd overall to Sutherland at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, Murphy won the overall and points competition at the UCI 2.2 Tour of Taiwan in March.

Frank Pipp is another rider who possesses a strong sprint, and will be hunting for breaks as he did in the 2007 Tour of Missouri, where he made the decisive break in Stage 2 en route to a second on the stage behind George Hincapie, and sixth overall.

Karl Menzies returned to racing in August after recuperating from injuries sustained in early June during the Reading Classic, part of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown. Menzies had scored podiums at the two races preceding Reading - the CSC Invitational and the Lehigh Valley Classic - but got caught up in a crash at Reading. His fitness is returning, and he placed 6th at the Priority Health Classic on Saturday, which he rode as a tune up for Missouri.

As always, veteran super-domestique Tim Johnson will be the captain on the road. Johnson has been one of the team's unsung heroes again this season, spending hundreds of kilometers riding the front, either protecting teammates like Sutherland, or chasing breaks to set up wins.

"We're really excited about our roster for Missouri," Tamayo said. "All of our guys have been successful domestically this season, and they've all contributed to winning the fifth NRC title. We're excited to be Number One again this year. And we want to show that we can play with the international teams when they come here to race."

The Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis Roster for
the Tour of Missouri:

Kyle Gritters
Tim Johnson
Roman Kilun
Karl Menzies
John Murphy
Kirk O'Bee
Frank Pipp
Rory Sutherland