June 29, 2004 - 2 Wins in Ohio

Dietrich Wins Two Stages and Takes 2nd Overall at Tour of Ohio, June 20-27

The Fiordifrutta squad continued their winning streak in Ohio, where thanks to two stage wins and a strong time trial, Dietrich took second place in the overall classification to Jelly Belly pro Caleb Manion. Josh Gewirtz, Johs Huseby, Phil Wong, and Dan Cassidy provided top notch support all week, and Mike wrote the following race reports:

Old Man’s Cave Road Race, June 23th

This is the stage of the Tour of Ohio that Fiordifrutta has won 5 years in a row. This year the four man team was a little worried with the loss of Dan Cassidy to a broken collarbone in Stage 1 and the old men on the team (Mills, Peck, Davis) opting to stay home. Josh Gewirtz, the reining OLD man cave champ from 2003, was in attendance so not all hope was lost. Early in the race a break of 10 guys managed to get almost 2 minutes on the field causing worry in the group. They were eventually chased down with 20 miles to go. Huseby, Gewirtz, and Wong all took their turns trying to get a move to stick while Dietrich sat in waiting for the last climb.

One rider was off when the 3k climb arrived, and Dietrich was the first to attack and get a gap. A group of three containing the race leader Caleb Manion bridged across and Dietrich managed to hold on. The 4 worked together until 1k to go when they started to cat and mouse. After beating Curt Davis in a standing start training sprint the week before, Dietrich was confident in his sprinting ability and wanted to slow the other 3 down and then out accelerate them. With 200m to go the now 5 riders (one Sierra Nevada rider bridged) slowed to less than 10mph. Dietrich jumped first and managed to hold on the win. Gewirtz sprinted to 11th and Wong and Huseby finished with the field after a very good days work.

Roscoe Village Road Race, June 24th

Today was the scary downhill finish stage in the Tour of Ohio. Josh, Johs, Phil and I went out with the hopes of just sitting in and taking it easy before the next couple of stages. The race would not allow us to do so however. After 5 miles or so the race broke apart in the headwind leaving groups all over the road. Luckily all four of us were able to make it to the front group which consisted of 25 riders. Josh, Johs, and Phil helped some of the other teams drive the group. Eventually the rest of the field made it back. For the last 30 miles of the race small breaks would form but nothing would stay.

On the KOM, Mike Dietrich, hoping to gain the time bonus and slip into second overall, attacked at the bottom of the climb bringing along 4th place Josh Dillon. The race leader Caleb Manion managed to bridge across but came into difficulty as Josh Gerwitz managed to slow him down a bit. After Caleb made it across the three worked together getting the gap up to 45 seconds. The three ended up sprinting for the win with Dietrich pushing his 53x12 (not the 17 cog as usual) to victory. Phil, Josh, and Johs all did an awesome job blocking to help the break stick.