December 14, 2005 - Cyclocross Nationals

Cyclocross National Championships, Dec 9-10

Fiordifrutta riders just returned from a very successful trip to the National Cyclocross Championships in Providence, RI this past weekend. In the elite race, Michael Cody led for much of the first lap, and there are some great pictures of him on cyclingnews.com and jsmcelvery.com. Cody and Matt White, and Jon Hamblen all put in solid rides on the snowy course to finish 15th, 18th, and 23th respectively.

In the old men’s races Johs Huseby barely missed wearing the stars and stripes jersey by finishing 2nd in the 30-34 category while Chris Peck narrowly avoided hypothermia and finished 5th in the 35-39 category.

Hamblen Wins NC Cyclocross Series Finals, Dec 4

Fiordifrutta's Jon Hamblen teamed up with Budget Self Storage mogul Jamie Bennett to put on the North Carolina Cyclocross Series Finals presented by NCCYCLING.COM at Tanglewood Park. Despite having to set up the course the day before the event, Jon felt energetic and confident. Having already won the series on points, today's race was more a fitness test than a points chase but Jon planned to ride as hard as possible, for the workout. Hamblen started the race hard, taking the lead before the first turn. Hamblen twisted the accelerator hard out of every turn and soon had the field broken up with just four riders making the front group, Brent Bookwalter(CCA-Kona), Mark Hekman(Savage Hill), and Charlie Pendry(BTD-Fuji). Absent from the front was Charlie Storm (BTD-Fuji) who had a wheel malfunction just 200 meters into the race and was forced to run half a mile to the pit. At the front Hamblen put the pressure on each lap, out of ever turn and up the slippery steep off camber ride-up he accelerated then sat up. Jon would slow on the straights to let another rider pull but all were content to sit on and avoid the headwinds, so, to save energy he just rode easy. Meanwhile, Storm began to fight back and was only fifteen seconds behind the lead pack.

With four laps to go Hamblen fianlly dropped Brent and began his solo run for the finish line. Storm soon passed Brent and held steady at 40sec for the remainder of the race, the crowd robbed of an epic battle between he and Hamblen due to his earlier wheel trouble. Jon won the race and stated afterwards " I was really happy with the Fior di Frutta Cannondale set-up today. Them boys down in the shop was workin hard and gettin 'er all ready for today. It's a big race for us, to be at home in front of the home crowd. You can't get beat here, you know, gotta win when yer at'ch yer own house. Other than the one fall in turn five there on the third lap, I rode a perty clean race, the tire pressure seemed about right and the Michelins was hookin up real good in the mud. I gotta thank my sponsors, Fior di Frutta, Cannondale, Time, Michelin Tires, all the boys up in Bethel, CT - at the shop, they done a good job.”