The Fiordifrutta boys have been winning stages and getting great publicity at the Tour of Shenandoah in Virginia. Check out the coverage on cyclingnews.com and some great photos of Dillon, Timmerman, Cody, and the red train. Full reports to follow next week!

Dan Timmerman and Larry Perera have been busy ripping up the Southeast race circuit until their return to New England later this spring. Larry writes the first race report from Georgia, and Dan follows up with a time trial report from North Carolina.

Timmerman 2nd at Gainesville Maxxis Georgia Cup #2, April 9th

This past weekend Dan Timmerman and Larry Perera made the trek to Gainesville Georgia to test their legs and their teamwork against some of the strongest riders in the southeast. Sunday's course was so demanding, with a 5 km climb with pitches over 17% that Healthnet's powerhouse aussie rider Nathan O’Neil sat the day out choosing rest over racing.

The race was held over an 8 mile course which the riders would complete 9 times. As soon as the flag dropped it was Fiordifrutta's intent even with only two riders to be major animators in the race, despite the fact that that there were several pro teams with full squads. Perera stretched his legs on the opening laps, trying to get a cohesive group together up the road, but it seemed that all eyes were on the men of red and black. Perera stated after the race "yeah it seemed like they had us on a pretty short leash, they must have known how good Dan is going right now!"

On the third time up the climb Perera forced the pace as hard as possible and shattered the front of the field. Just as things were coming back together, Timmerman put in an effort than left everyone else just watching, and although a few riders tried to follow, they ended up watching in dismay as Dan just rode them off his wheel.

Over the course of the next lap, with a full on chase behind headed up by Pro Team Aerospace, Timmerman put 2 minutes into the field. Eventually a chase group formed with eventual winner Thad Dulin making it across solo to Timmerman in the closing laps...Timmereman went pull for pull with Dulin, a veteran third season pro.

Given the fact that Timmerman was off the front for close to 100 km, it was impossible for Dan to get away from the crafty professional...though Timmerman did unleash some furious attacks knowing he would be hard pressed to beat Dulin, the home town favorite who knew these roads like the back of his hand.

Finishing an impressive 2nd place Timmerman fine tuned his race form with an epic breakaway which would have even Jacky Durand jealous. Young Mexican Pro Oscar Henao brought in the charge from behind to round out the podium. Perera bridged across to the next group and won a 6 man sprit for 9th place. Hopefully this is just the beginning of good things to come from the Asheville N.C. based duo.

Asheville Time Trial Series, April 20th

After another week of the hardest riding I've ever done, I headed out to do the first TT of the Asheville TT series. You never really know what you’re going to get at these things. The local Masters LOVE their TTs. That's like their thing.

I guess that's what you supposed to do when you get old.... forget how to climb and sprint, doesn't matter, as long as you can still destroy anyone in your local TT. I mean, our local ball busting Master in Ithaca finally was dethroned last year at age 52. One of the local Asheville Masters guys apparently converted his bedroom into an altitude chamber just so he could embarrass young punks at the local TT.

Anyway I thought I was feeling good enough to do the TT, good enough to do a 20k TT, but I guess I probably shouldn't have done it and kept resting for Shenandoah. I got 3rd. Beat by two local Masters. Ouch!!

Fiordifrutta riders are spread out across the county at the moment, but we are seeing strong results in New England and in Colorado where Josh Gewirtz and Todd Nordblom go to school.

Dillon 2nd at BATTENKILL ROUBAIX Road Race, April 15th

It was not quite like the real thing in France, but it was a nice day to race bikes with Whitey and Ben Z. There was a decent turnout for the start, ~60 riders + Mike Jones (Heathnet), and the course promised to make for some good racing with 55 miles of numerous climbs and several dirt sections. The early part of the race was fairly uneventful as Jones rode tempo on the front of the race, probably out of habit, and he was heavily marked. Finally, a few riders had a go themselves and established a break at ~25 miles into the race.

As the race rolled onto the longest dirt section of the course, the pace in the main group lifted and started pulling the 3 man break back in. Just as the group was back intact, our man Matt White drove the pace on the front. By the end of the long dirt climb Matt (coming off an impressive field sprint down at Tufts Criterium but determined to show his versatility) had trimmed the lead group down to 5 riders. There was another group of 5 about 20s behind so Matt continued to drive the pace across the flat into the final ascent of the day, the summit of which was about 5 miles from the finish. Over the final climb, the lead group was down to 3 and we worked well together for a couple miles until I attacked the other two. Jones clawed back onto my wheel with just under 2k to go and would not come around (after the race he said he would have gone to a track stand to make sure I led out the sprint) so I lead out the sprint from about 200 meters. I should have waited a little longer because I almost held him off. Whitey deserved the win for the work he put in to make the race, and once again demonstrated his sprinting prowess to take the two-up for 4th place.

Gewirtz 2nd at Ore Digger Classic, Golden Colorado

Under clear skies and warm weather I decided to venture to wonderful Golden Colorado for the annual Ore Digger classic. Todd Nordblom could not attend, as he “had” to enter a big air contest in near by Vail Colorado. His Cannondale was seen at the lodge, holding overpriced French fries in the water bottle cages. This short criterium stood in the shadow of the Coors Brewing factory, which also brews Molson and Rolling Rock beverages and happens to be the one of the largest, longest and most successful employers in all of Colorado. Or so the tour guide said

It must have been the smell of fresh hops in the air, as my racing prowess seemed honed for so early a race in the season. A break of 7 quickly went up the road and established a 50 second gap. Without much doubt I waited for the 30-minute mark to try to make a bridge to the break, which looked like it was going to stick. When that time came, I quickly punched it on the top of the one short rise and dragged a Creffy (Team TIAA Creff) along for company. We both made good work and within three laps were up to the break of 7. From this point on, I acted like a Quebecois and said I didn’t speak English, sat on and recovered. With three laps to go, attacks were frequent and ferocious. I covered two critical moves to keep the bunch together so it would come down to a group sprint. In the end, I jumped way too early but held on for a solid 2nd place. Satisfied and still needing a little more training, I rode up the famous Lookout Mountain, and watched base jumpers fling themselves off the neighboring rocks. All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday and I would like to thank Curt, Chris and Claudio for putting together a wonderful team.

Gewirtz 3rd at Fort Lewis Collegiate Cycling Weekend: “Squaker Classic”

The Fort Lewis College cycling weekend brings two things. The first is a tough and brutal road race, and the second is a bunch of road and mountain bike pro’s that occasionally attend class but are still considered collegiate athletes. As I lined up with a bunch of “college” participants who sported various trade team arm warmers, I knew this was gonna be a tough one. The course was a six mile lap, with one super steep ¾ mile hill, a fairly long false flat, and a switch back descent. The race began with a group of 5 Fort Lewis teammates getting a substantial gap within the first lap.

I began organizing an immediate chase, as that was a threat that needed to be dealt with. When the group got to about 45 seconds, I managed, with the help of Collegiate National Mountain bike Champion Alex Hagman, to bridge across on the steep part of the hill. Hagaman and I made it across in one lap. However, when getting to the break, Fort Lewis rider and Target Training Pro, Matt Schriver, had already flown the coupe and established a 2 minute lead. With the help of a Colorado State University rider and a Montana State rider, we worked well together to bring the gap down to 30 seconds. With one lap remaining, the three non FLC riders took turns covering various sky hawk attacks. Upon approaching the steep hill, I attacked at the base and brought Shriver within 10 seconds. Unfortunately, Hagman was able to come around me at the end and I had to settle for a satisfying yet still disappointing 3rd. All in all, it was a great race and felt wonderful to be in the great town of Durango.

Timmerman Top Amateur at Redlands, March 24-26

Dan Timmerman and the rest of the squad had another great early season race in California, and Dan wrote the following report:

Unlike the races on the two previous weekends, the Redlands Bicycle Classic was warm and sunny. It actually felt hot out! The three day race for this year started with the Panorama Point Time Trial. It was a 5k TT that had everything. It had false flat, had rollers and ended on a decent climb which all made it pretty hard. Unlike the earlier races, we had a full 8 man team racing, many coming straight from the frozen east. I was the last of our team off, going right in front of someone I didn't really want to be chased by, but I had a good 30sec man in front of me. I put a lot of time into him, but when I got to the climb I was a hurting unit and started to really slow down. I ended up 34th. Not too good, not too bad I guess. Mike Cody was our next rider and pulled off 63rd.

I was kind of dreading Saturday's Downtown Criterium, which had 9 corners per lap with 170 guys. That's a lot of corners for 90min and a lot of guys going through them. It wasn't that bad, mostly because I got a decent start and made myself stay in good position. It probably sucked to in the back. Cody celebrated early and I got him at the line with a bike throw for 55th. Maybe next year.

I'm not really sure how long Sunday's road race stage was supposed to be, but it felt like 30million laps and 150miles. If someone told me it was 150 miles after the race, I seriously would have believed them. Supposedly, we did 14 laps and it was a climb up, descend down kind of course. Not much resting, since all the guys that were hanging on up the climb were doing all they could on the way down to move up so they didn't get dropped when they hit the climb again. As Health Net and United fought it out and a break got away, the pack shattered more and more on the climb every lap. Josh Gewirtz was riding really well on his birthday. By the time we hit the 5 finishing circuits the pack had dwindled to 30 riders and as we headed onto the last lap of the finishing circuits I threw in an attack and tried to get a gap. United was setting up JJ so they came back by me in about 500 meters. Oh well, at least they know I was there. I came in 14th, and moved up to 19th on overall GC.