July 8, 2005 - Fitchburg Points Win

Cody Wins Points Jersey at Fitchburg-Longsjo Stage Race, June 30 – July 3

The squad put in another great performance at this NRC race in Fitchburg, MA to propel Mike Cody into the green points jersey by the end of the four day event. The second day’s circuit race stage saw Mike Dietrich spend the whole day in a breakaway with Juan Jose Haedo (Colavita) and Russ Langley (Snow Valley) as their lead got up to two minutes. Dietrich was able to sprint to take the points jersey lead as well as eleventh on the stage. You can see some great photos here of Dietrich, Rozdilsky, and Hamblen.

The road race was Fiordifrutta’s opportunity to defend the green jersey and the team put three men in the early break, with Hamblen and Perera supporting Cody as he sprinted for the points every lap. Cody was able to gain enough points to catapult into the lead with Dietrich just behind in second. Hamblen had a very strong ride after more than 100 miles to finish 6th place at the top of Mt. Wachusett. Dan Timmerman and Phil Wong also got into the top 25.

The final day’s crit was a battle between sprinter Adam Myerson (Nerac.com) and the Fiordifrutta boys. With 10 riders at the front controlling the field, Fiordifrutta was able to lead out Cody and Dietrich for the points, while helping former Fiordifrutta rider Jon Page (Colavita) take the stage win and thus the overall win. Cody and Dietrich took 1st and 3rd in the points competition while the team put three riders in the top 20 on GC with Hamblen in 7th, Timmerman in 16th and Wong in 20th.