July 12, 2006 - Road National Champs

Josh Dillon writes the following race report from a hard fought battle in Seven Springs, PA

Dillon 9th at Elite National Road Race Championships, July 8th

It is incredibly cliche, especially in bike racing, for an athlete to cite the team effort and strength in a post race victory speech or interview. Personally, I would be hard pressed to stomach an 8th Tour de France in a row of Lance doing just that.

So hopefully the next few lines are exempt as they come in the wake of defeat at a small race in western PA. It is a race that has a big meaning to a team that prides itself as the hands-down strongest amateur team in the country, yet has been deprived of boasting the national amateur champion on its roster for a number of years.

And although the past weekend came and went without another national title, at the same time the reputation of the strongest team in the nation was upheld. That is because of the way every rider assumed their responsibility and executed accordingly. First Johs, Cody, and Roz went on the attack and/or bridged up to moves and/or pulled back dangerous breaks thereby wearing down the field to less than half the starters.

Next, Timmerman came off strept throat and antibiotics to cover the 2nd longest break of the day, which forced Broadmark to burn through their remaining riders. And finally, Peck shattered the rest of the field pulling back the winning move to within a few seconds through the most selective climbs of the course.

Matt White on the other hand did it all...bridging us up to dangerous moves, grabbing extra water bottles, towing me through the field, and finally by pulling on the front all the while never leaving me outside of a foot from his wheel. All this amounted to a very controlled, predictable race for the strongest rider to prevail.

That was the team's gift to me and 13 other riders that remained (out of 120 starters) after Fiordifrutta had done its damage. While the remnants of the peloton was worried about what Fiordifrutta was going to do next, a couple riders rolled off the front that would never come back.

Maybe I should have accepted this and raced for 4th, but that is not the example the team laid out all day and I burned myself trying to get the win back. A 9th place finish was the result with White, Peck, and Rozdilsky eventually rolling in for 15th, 16th, and 21st respectively.