The greatest thing about this team, though, is the group of riders. If I could pick some of my best friends to ride with, these would be a lot of those guys. And it was really evident at training camp. The camaraderie was amazing. Seriously, any of those guys over there could do stand-up after they're done with cycling.

[Even though other teams and other riders have worn the various leader's jerseys and won other stages of the 2005 International Tour de Toona, the team holding all the cards at the end was Health-Net Maxxis, lead by veteran pro Scott Moninger in yellow.] We were all about the overall win on GC, ... The team focused on that win and second to that was the stage win - we just wanted to control the race.

We just tried to pick the best team we can for this game,

Our team is going to be ready to play. You are going to be amazed. It is a special group with character and pride. We are going to control what we can control.

This is the best we've played all year as a team.

Any back-to-back is tough, but especially against a team like Vancouver. Even though they've been losing, they've been scoring a lot of goals and just coming out on the short end of the stick.