May 17, 2004 - Tour of CT, NH Win for Hamblen

Milne Takes Second at Opening Stage of Tour of Connecticut, May 16th

Shawn Milne put together one of the best rides in his career to take second place in the 136 mile stage 1 of the Tour of CT. He finished just 28 seconds down on US Professional Champion Mark McCormack (Colavita-Bolla) and ahead of Navigator’s Mark Walters. Milne is now wearing the top amateur jersey as the Tour of CT continues this Thursday through Sunday.

At mile 6 of Sunday’s stage, things were not looking good for the Fiordifrutta boys as they were not part of a nine rider break that had put four and half minutes on the field. The field had slowed to a crawl, and Curt Davis and Chris Peck took up a chase that would last for the next one and half hours. After 20 minutes of towing the field, the gap remained at four minutes, and the team sent strongman Jon Hamblen to the front to help with the chase. With not a single pull from any other team, the Fiordifrutta squad caught the breakaway at the 42 mile mark.

Hamblen was still fresh enough to cover the next attacks with Mike Dietrich and Phil Wong also prevalent at the front. Unfortunately a crash took Wong out of the action by the 80 mile mark, and the usually tireless Hamblen was finally slowed down as the race neared the finishing circuits in Torrington. The team was hit by more back luck as Dietrich flatted on the 50 mph descent into town, and was not able to rejoin the small 25 man front group.

The group of 25, which contained Milne, Peter Hult, and Josh Gewirtz, was chasing a three man breakaway. This trio contained two former Fiordifrutta riders who have made the jump to the professional ranks, Mike Jones (Healthnet) and Todd Herriott (Colavita-Bolla). The group was finally caught with just 5 of the one mile finishing circuits to go. Milne finally saw his chance to attack and escaped with just 6 other riders. The group was out-powered by McCormack who took the solo win, but Milne was also able to get away from the group by himself to finish a strong second.

You can read complete coverage of the event at Velonews.com and cyclingnews.com and we will send links to pictures in the coming days.

You can read the Danbury News Times story on the event here, which included the following quote:

Milne and Fiordifrutta almost single-handedly caught the leaders early in the race. And yet, the team paid a heavy price for its efforts.
"We burned some matches, right there," conceded Milne, who won the top amateur jersey for his runner-up finish. "We worked really, really hard at the end. But it just started to fall apart with a lap-and-a-half to go. I just did what I could.
"I was going as fast as I could, but there was no way I was going to catch Mark. I've trained with Mark before. Once he decides to go, there's not much you can really do about it."

Hamblen Wins New Hampshire International Speedway Criterium, May 15

The beautiful motorsports course at NHIS uses half of the track's popular NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series oval course with an added twisty up and down section on the hill above the 3/4 mile oval. It is the same course used for weekly S&W Bike’s Thursday night training races in the spring and summer.

However, this weekend the bike races were not held on the motorsports course because there was a motorcycle race on Saturday. Instead, the bike races were held in the hilly parking area behind the speedway on open and windy roads. The racers rode around a twisty one mile loop with three high speed ninety degree turns and a long half mile ascent to the finish line.

Both Fiordifrutta riders with the initials JH were in attendance, Johs Huesby and Jon Hamblen. There were fifty or so riders from various teams racing, with Range Rover, Ibex, and Trek having the most riders. Johs and Jon had to race tactically to avoid wasting any extra energy, being a team of only two, they were in a tough spot and it would be extremely difficult to win the race. Early in the race Johs covered many moves by the other teams while Jon picked up a few primes. The speeds were low due to the hill and wind and the majority of the field was noticeably weaker only eight laps into the twenty-eight lap race. Jon took advantage of this and launched off the front with a group of fifteen riders.

This group dwindled down to just six by the last five laps thanks to constant attacks by Hamblen, Jelly Belly's Jeremy Powers, Al Donahue from Luis Garneau, and Mike Cody of NCC. In the end it was a group of three sprinting for the win, Jon took the win for Fiordifrutta with Mike Cody in a close second place. Johs and Jon spent the remainder of the day watching the motorcycle riders crash in the switchback turn on the real race course.