June 13, 2007 - 2 Wins

Josh Dillon posted a win this past weekend, and Will Rifflemacher writes in with a couple of race reports including another win!

Dillon Wins Balloon Festival Classic, Cambridge, NY, June 9

Fiordifrutta send five riders to contest this 63 mile race in upstate NY, and the result was a solid team win. Jamie Driscoll, Josh Lipka, and Chris Peck put in a 20 mile chase to bring back an early breakaway, and during those 20 miles not one other rider took a single pull. This set up Dillon to make the breakway group on the final 20 mile lap.

Dillon knew he needed to be the first one through the last corner, and he jumped around Dan Cassidy (CCB) who was leading out a teammate. Dillon sprinted in for the win, while Driscoll and Peck led out Toby Marzot who took 2nd place in the field sprint.

Riffelmacher Wins Hollenbeck Road Race, NY, May 6

After racing with the team on Saturday at Jiminy Peak, I headed out to Virgil, NY for the Hollenbeck road race. The race was three loops of a 20 mile circuit with two big climbs and lots of false flats. There were lots of attacks leading up to the first climb and one rider rolled off the front. Cory Burns (who won the race last year) set a hard pace up the first climb and I attacked over the top with one rider on my wheel. We quickly bridged to the rider up the road and began working to establish a gap over the field.

About 15 miles into the race, one of the riders in the break crashed out on a rough stretch of road. The other rider and I traded pulls for the next lap and a half and then I accelerated on a climb with about 15 miles to go, got a gap and rode in for the win. The final 300m of the race was on a gradual climb and it seemed like the longest 300m I had ever ridden after being out in the wind for so long.
Cory did a great job of covering every move from the field and made sure that no one else came across.

Tour of High Bridge, NJ, June 10

After getting sick at Mt. Hood and taking time off to recover, I was finally ready this weekend to get back into the swing of things with a short local race. The Tour of High Bridge is a fixture of the New York/ New Jersey summer racing scene and features a 300m wall at 15-18% as well as one of the roughest sections of "pavement" I have ever ridden on.

A break of five went on lap 3 of 11 with most of the big local teams represented and it stuck to the end. I tried to bridge by myself about half way through the race but did not quite make the junction. After failing to bridge, I sat in until the last lap and then attacked with one other rider about two miles from the finish.

I stayed away to the finish to finish what turned out to be 7th (there was one other rider up the road in between the break and the field).
All in all, it was a great way to get back in race mode.