February 12...
With the 2004 season around the corner, the iomega-Orbea squad is looking towards the new season with some new goals, new riders and new races to travel to. 

The team's goals for 2004 are to improve on the development of the riders from where they were last year.  With the entire 2003 roster coming back and the team's new additions iomega-Orbea is looking to be a stronger deeper squad than in 2003.  Good local results and a strong Regional and National presence are team objectives.   Events like the Vuelta de Bisbee, Tour of the Gila, Cascade Classic, The Tour of Eagle, Elkhorn Classic, Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium and Ecology Classic as major goals for the squad in 2004.
iomega-Orbea has added a new face to the team in Parma raised and Boise based Steven Parker.  Brother of Greg Parker who raced on the Treasure Valley some years ago, Steven is looking forward to riding this season in his new team colors.  Gary Casella said "Steven will be a rider we bring along this season and intergrate him into our program and develop his overall abilities along the way.  He has a tremendous upside and I am please to have him on the team."  Steven is a Cat. 3 rider with his 2004 goal to upgrade to a Cat. 2 and race hard with the other team riders and be on par with them before seasons end.

Casella still has 2 more roster spots he's looking to fill and is currently negociating with some riders to fill those positions.

With the cancellation of the Vuelta de Argentina, as previously reported, team manager Gary Casella, has 90% secured a replacement event.  Still working out some of the details for such a team venture, Casella is confident either way it turns out.  "It would be great to have the team travel and race abroad, but if it don't work out our plan B is to hit some National events in the early part of the year."  The replacement event is likely to be the Vuelta de Uruguay which runs April 3-11, 2004.  " The Vuelta de Uruguay fits better into out schedule as it isn't so early in the year for us as Argentina would have been, plus its also a week shorter.  The racing is tough and the terrain is comparable to Belgium or Holland.  Climbs of no more than 2-3Km, but some very steep grades and crosswinds as well as the seasonal wet weather sometimes determine the time gaps.  GC is usually determined by the time trials, but not always.  We'll be going there to gain experiance and race hard for 9-10 stages.  A podium stage finish would be nice and I believe Eric Ransom could definitly put in a good GC ride is he's on form.  We'll see if we head down there."