November 30, 2004 - NC Series

Jon Hamblen has kept up a full cross racing schedule and writes the below race report from North Carolina. There are also some great photos of Hamblen taken by Dennis Smith from some New England racing at the pbase.com website here, with a photo of Johs and a crash by Hamblen.

Hamblen 2nd at Greensboro, NC Cyclocross Series, Nov 29th

Cool weather and mud for the Greensboro stop of the NC Cyclocross Series, plenty of rain the previous week left the course at Bur Mil Park sloppy and slow. Fiordifrutta sent lone North Carolina rider Jon Hamblen to brave the conditions and work on his mud riding skills. As usual Jon and Fuji's Charlie Storm took off to an early lead, followed by Andy Applegate (Masters' 35+ winner earlier in the day). Jon and Charlie worked well together to create a big gap between themselves and the other riders. In the final turns Jon sat on Charlie, confident that he could sprint around the MTB'er on the finish stretch. Charlie had other ideas, however, and accelerated hard, Jon could not get by him before the finish and Storm beat Hamblen to the line.