May 5, 2008 - Marzot Wins Jiminy

Another week brought another win for the Fiordifrutta boys and Toby Marzot writes the below report. You can see the full results and a finish line photo here.

Marzot Wins Jiminy Peak Road Race, May 3

Fiordifrutta brought a very strong and motivated squad to Jiminy Peak: Hayden Brooks, Matt White, Josh Dillon, Jamey Driscoll, Eric Schildge, Josh Lipka, Steve Weller, and I all took to the line in damp, drizzly conditions. Following our Roz- inspired race plan, we were to be aggressive throughout the race, making sure we had the right numbers in any breakaway that happened to get up the road

The first of five rolling, 30km laps saw many attacks, but riders in the field were too fresh and nervous to let anything get away. Every rider from our team, however, did an awesome job covering each and every early breakaway attempt.

At the beginning of the second lap I saw a rather large move forming, that contained both Hayden and Matt. I figured we should have better odds than 2/16, so I jumped across. I was nervous that I would bring the whole field across, but only one rider came with me. As the move got established, Hayden and Matt each took monster pulls. I tried to do my share too, and we continued working for what turned out to be a long day in the break.

When we saw one lap to go, it was clear our break would stay away and the real racing started. Matt snuck away on the big descent for what would be the first of many last-lap attacks. This took the pressure off of Hayden and I, forcing the others to chase. As soon as Matt came back Hayden put in a killer move. This cycle repeated for several miles, until I happened to cover a move from Jason Beerman on Kenda-Raleigh.

We were joined by Mike Margarite of Empire, and Al Donahue of Nerac. I didn't think the representation of this move was quite right, but we slowly opened up a gap in the windy last section of the race. Everyone was pretty tired, so the pace was calm up to the last 150m of the finishing hill. I then started the sprint and took home the victory. Meanwhile the FdF boys had shredded the field, insuring that we had a total of 4 riders in the money.