September 20, 2007 - 2 Road Wins

Dillon Wins York Beach Criterium, Maine, September 14th

Even though our directors had thought it was time to dust off the ol' cross bikes, we (Josh Lipka, Matt White, and myself) decided to take advantage of a picture perfect New England early fall weekend by putting in a couple last digs on the hardtop. Friday evening featured the York Beach circuit, literally a stones throw (or short toss) from the ocean. Given the number of strong sprinters in the field we were pushing the pace for a break.

However after I had a short go off the front, the ageless Mark McCormack countered and had established a fairly dangerous ~20 second break with one other "lucky" rider who was hanging onto Mark's wheel by a thread. Never fear though, Lipka singlehandedly pulled back Mark with a mighty 4 lap pull. Allow me to repeat the previous sentence as it warrants emphasis...Lipka singlehandedly pulled back Mark. Dang.

Whitey quickly jumped on the counterattacks with field back together, which the rest of the field responded to immediately, and all of a sudden we were 1 lap to go with the looking at a mass sprint. Then it dawned on me that I could win from 1k out, so that's what I did. Matt had pulled me to the front and I jumped, and got just enough hesitation by the field to hold off the fast charging sprint at the line.

Dillon 5th at Portsmouth Criterium, NH, September 16th

Two days later was the Portsmouth Criterium, just down the road from York. Given a nearly identical field to Friday evening, we would try to play it the same way, however we were going to have to manage without Lipka's diesel engine. Also, there was a healthy prime offering that Matt keenly picked up on, and we decided to roll that into the game plan.

So Part 1, win primes...Part 2, win the race by getting in break. Out of the gates Matt stormed to a couple of prime lap wins, part 1 check. And following the second prime Whitey won, I followed the counterattack which set up the race winning break, part 2 half-check.

But after a couple laps, some of the stronger sprinters joined the break, part 2 un-check. And having made it to two laps to go and not wanting to go to the line with Mike Cody (former Fiordifrutta rider turned Jelly Belly pro), I jumped from the group. Well, it seems everybody and their sister was expecting me to do that and ultimately I just really wore myself out for the inevitable sprint against the rest of the break.

Fortunately, Matt continued his strong sprinting out of the field, which gave us 5th and 8th...and for me 64 days of racing in the books.

Burns Wins Whiteface Mtn Hill Climb, NY, September 16

It was cold! I woke up Sunday morning around 6 to get ready for a "brisk" 8 o'clock uphill time trial at Whiteface Mtn. in Lake Placid NY. It’s a bear of a climb at an average of 9% for 8.2 miles with pitches of 12% at times. As I put on all my winter gear for the ride down I had to laugh because less then a week ago we raced in more than 90 degree temps in PA and now I was leaving a hotel room at 35 degrees!

I am no "climber" but for my taste is was what I think of as perfect climbing conditions. Windy, foggy, cold.....delicious!! Not the type of conditions for records but either way, away I went. As I arrived I couldn't help but get a little nervous as all the climber types started to show up. On the start line this kid of all of 130 pounds comes up next to me, AWESOME, now I gotta follow this lanky lad all the way up? As I look around there were a few of them that looked at the mountain like I look at a rolling time trail...drooling, and excited for the day.

It was great, these young bucks took off so fast and I just sat on their wheels until their heads became one with the stem and handle bar and then I simply just rode off to the side of them and continued my way up the mountain at my own pace the best way I know how to race, on my own!

It was great like I said, all the fog seemed to take away the gradient of the mountain. All in all it was a good day, I would have like to have broken the hailed 45 minute mark but with the wind that day at the top and the drastic change in racing conditions from a week ago it was not to be. I won the day though and that’s something that I haven't been able to say a lot this year. Not bad

Oh, and it was 28 degrees at the top. What a day.