Cody Sprints to 8th Place and top Under-25 Rider at Mt. Holly-Smithville Grand Prix, July 22

A flat 92 mile road race? As odd as it sounds, that is what the boys faced at the Mt. Holly-Smithville Invitational. The race started under ominous skies and after 2 laps of ripping around at 28mph we found out why the sky was so dark.

Hell hath no furry like New Jersey. For 40 minutes it was impossible to see where we were going through the torrential downpour and the rooster tails of water coming off the peloton's tires. The rain was probably a relief to fire fighters on the New Jersey turnpike, however, who were putting out a two-car fire on the exit 14 ramp and also another fire on a tour bus full of out-of-towners whose rear axle spontaneously combusted in front of us.

A crash split the field in two with Josh Dillon becoming the unlucky recipient of a Rubix cube of aluminum and carbon, he was forced to abandon. Chris Peck managed to get past it all after swimming through the drainage ditch after the crash blocked the road. Meanwhile, Cody, Gewirtz, and White battled on against the remainder of the field. Navigators retained four of their strong riders and promptly attacked the field through the monsoon.

Cody slipped away in a break of five including Navigators Bernard van Ulden and TargetTrainings' Matt Shriver. Holding just over a 15 second gap, van Ulden and Shriver attacked as Cody finished his pull and rolled away to a one minute gap despite efforts to chase. The field rolled around for the rest of the lap until the feed zone where the Navigators attacked in twos to split the field since they had a team car they didn't need to get bottles in the feed zone. Typical New Jersey move. They'll probably miss the start of their next race, again...

The field reorganized and began a chase after one lap with Fiordifrutta, Mengoni, and CRCA/Sakonet chasing. Cyclingnews.com has a great shot with Fiordifrutta at the front. The group of six was gone despite a valiant effort. Coming into the finishing circuits Peck, White, and Gewirtz made solid attacks to ditch riders out of the field and set things up for Cody. A large group of sprinters played cat and mouse, surging over the last finishing circuit. With some poor positioning Cody took an early sprint from the last corner that gapped everyone.

Serguey Lagutin (former World Champ) and Adam Myerson (Nerac.com) were able to come back to him in the last 10 meters. His 8th place in the race was also good enough to take the 'Best under-25' rider in the race. Gewirtz won most combative rider for out dueling Myerson in one of Adam's classic post race arguments. Dillon won most patient for driving all the way to New Jersey.

Cody Wins Naugatuck Criterium, July 23

After a long drive back and forth from the Land of the Burning Car the boys lined up in Naugatuck, CT for a Sunday evening criterium. Davis started his warm-up early with a solid "race" for 15 laps in the Master 35+ race. His knowledge of the course quickly ousted Chris' first race plan of the day for a breakaway. The debate continued for awhile and when the smoke cleared we decided on the Davis lead out.

Peck started things off by racing for the first 15 laps and "keeping the rest of you guys in the race." Thanks Chris. Whitey was ear-to-ear smiles that stemmed from the vegetables and pint of ice cream he had for dinner the night before as well as his ability to supertuck most of the course, (including the uphill, just like ParkRidge.) The field waited for the red train to start racing and quickly followed our piss with a little vinegar. Gewirtz and White made some solid attacks and counters to break the race up. Nothing could stay up the road though due to the stiff headwind on the bottom of the course.

Davis spent most of his time adjusting the tail of his jersey after the last corner every lap, in attempt to look good when he rode past the wife and kids. Gewirtz and Whitey made the field good and tired so that when Cody countered through a prime lap he was able to escape with 6 other riders inside of 10 laps to go.

Their lead quickly shot up to 30 seconds. White made a move out of the field to bridge with two other riders, but kept their distance in an effort not to drag racers across to the break. Cody meanwhile rolled the break of seven until the closing laps when the cat and mouse games began.

Cody was forced to cover moves on the last lap with the sprinters sitting on. The games spilled onto the finishing straight where Cody played the late move and sprinted through the group scooping up the last rider a few meters from the line to score his second victory of the year. White took the three up sprint 12 seconds back while Gewirtz took second in the field sprint.

Matt White writes about his recent crit win, Buck Miller has some funny comments from racing with the Canadian National Team in China, and Josh Dillon checks in with a race report from Fitchburg.

White Wins Northampton Criterium, July 4

The downtown Northampton July Fourth Criterium was a hop, skip and jump from my front door. Cody and I were off to the races on a stormy July 4th afternoon. Needing no warm up still "hot" from the Fitchburg Crit, we rolled straight from the house to the start line.

I told my team mates Chris Peck and Ben Zawacki that I was going to win today and before I knew it I was on the attack soloing away from the field. I was then joined by Greg Wolf and we rotated for while, eventually getting caught after a cash prime which I craftily snagged.

Peck and Zawacki hit the front for the final 15 laps of the race as if they were setting up to lead out Cody. But with 3 laps to go I jumped, bridging to the then solo Steve Roszko, and barely out sprinted him to line, I mean barely! I learned 2 valuable lessons today, when in doubt, announce while other sprinters are listening that you will be leading it out for Mike Cody, then attack. Lesson two, never celebrate too early.

Miller Suffers at Tour of Quinghai Lake, China, July 15-23

So, China. Where do I start. I just finished the 5th stage, and to be honest, I don't know how any of us Canucks have managed to get this far. The organizers made it tough to start the race off on the right foot as we arrived at the race hotel at 3am the morning of the first stage. That was sweeeeeet. Then we had a 3 hour transfer through mountain towns that you see on World Vision TV shows. Then the stage was in the gutter from the gun.

Anyway, everyday has a crazy amount of climbing, like 30-45k climbs that take you up to 12-13,000 feet.

Our Manager Jacky Hardy, a frenchman that rode the Tour a few times, and drove in the team car for 12 Tours has us sitting up every single day just before we red-line, and riding in the grupetto, so we can save our legs. Not that our results would be that much better, but that’s why we're off the back everyday.

Tomorrow is a "flat" day, with still 1.6km in elevation gain, and 210k, so he's hoping all our time in the grupetto is going to pay off and we can get a stage result, or at least represent in the day long early break.

The average elevation here is 3000m, after walking up the stairs you are cracked, and trying to catch your breath. We all get headaches in the middle of the night. But it's getting better.

This is the hardest race I've ever done. Pray for me dudes, I gotta get to that finish line on Sunday, on the bike, not the Broom wagon.

Cody Takes Green Jersey for a Day at the Fitchburg Longsjo Stage Race, June 29-July 2

So we had to start this race a man down due to residual Beauce trauma. Josh Gewirtz nearly had his liver removed in Hungary because of the stomach infection he got in Quebec and the language barrier with the Hungarian doctors. Josh did make it to Fitchburg (with his liver) and man'ed the feed zone in the road race for Fiordifrutta. I must say, that it was hands down the most dependable feed I have had in a race, but mostly I was just glad he was there and relatively healthy.

On the topic of health, Timmerman had just finished up his antibiotics from Beauce strept throat and had to pull out of theFitchburg circuit race. Hopefully this means we will all be healthy for elite nationals this upcoming weekend, so we can storm that race like we did at Shenandoah when we were all healthy. So Fitchburg went ok, with Cody taking the green jersey (again) for a day and we placed one rider in the top 20 overall. Not a dream come true for us, but the field was a lot deeper this year with ~70 pro's and ~50 cat 1's. (We were third placed for amateur teams)

Fiordifrutta send a squad to battle with the pros at one of the hardest races in North America. Teams from Germany, Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland, Mexico, and Japan had traveled to compete in this event. Josh Dillon writes in with an amusing race report where he road to an 11th place in the time trial and 36th overall.

Tour de Beauce, UCI 2.2, June 13-18

This is a hard race. Hard because it is UCI with over 10 countries represented, including 4 current national champions (and another handful of former national and world champs). Hard because it is 6 days of ~100 miles of rugged tarmac often strung out in single file for hours on end, before ending with 18% climbs. And hard because quebecois haven't the slightest clue how to make a good chocolate milkshake. damn. because the race is so hard, we wouldn't have lasted 2 days without the incredible support we had (thank you Nordblom and Mrs. Timmerman).

Day 0: arrive at chateau Roz in Montreal. This was our first introduction to tough riding conditions, as I managed to flat on the bike path. Full fiordifrutta team, all kitted up, standing on the bike path watching their teammate change a flat is not that cool. Sorry team.

Day 1: the so called "flat" stage was anything but flat. And for the few miles it was flat, I was flat out trying to hold the wheel in front of me that was incredibly perched on the very last inch of pavement on the left hand side of the road. Our Beauce tour guide, Bucker, showed up to ride and finished in one of the first couple groups.

Gewirtz and I finished together and I think I was 80 something place, 1 spot behind Canadian phenom phil cortes. Dan Timmerman and Roz were taken down by a crash so Timmerman had to ride in on a beach cruiser and Roz left half of his shoulder on the road. The next morning quite a few riders woke up with a case of 'caravan arm' due to the crash.

Day 2: "medium" hills stage. Again Bucker showed up to ride and made the move of the day (probably had good legs because of his laced topped stockings he insisted on wearing around the dorms, no joke. He said they are for stage racing but my guess is you don't see Lance parading around France in those things.

It wasn't until the kom's towards the end of the stage where it started to go hard. I started going better by these and made it over the summit's ~top 20 with Timmerman. At this time I will note that Whitey was tackling these same climbs and single file gutter riding with two bottles in his bike, two bottles in his pockets, and two bottles in his jersey. damn.

Day 3: "hilly" stage. I guess it finally counts as "hilly" when the stage finishes on Quebec's version of Mt. Washington. Not to mention the 10 mile run into the final climb was flat out in the gutter with riders popping off every minute. After being at threshold for 30 minutes I didn't quite have the pop to stay with Danny Pate up Megantic and finished in the top 25. This was the day that our team leader Timmerman came down with a nice case of strept throat. lovely. (more on canadian bourne sicknesses to follow).

Day 4: Off day, no wait a tt. Another day of going as hard as you can. This time it kind of paid off with a ride that tied for 9th place, except the two other guys with the same time were Canadian so I got 11th...not sure how that works, but 11th ain't bad either.

Day 4.5: But then we had the afternoon off, no wait a 60 km criterium. So we rode around in circles for a couple hours just making sure to keep the bikes upright as some of the riders' countries don't EVER have criteriums and their bike handling reflects that. Otherwise fairly uneventful.

Day 5: Quebec City circuit race. Kind of like the Univest circuit except the hill is steeper and longer, and the riders are faster...and it is after 4 days of racing. oh yeah, and they didn't close the streets either. After the second time up the wall, I broke a spoke and was pretty concerned that my week had ended. After a very slow wheel change I looked up to start riding and saw Roz waiting to pull me on. We seriously hammered and made it back on, but unfortunately at the cost of Roz's finish.

It did move us up into the top 20, but we could have done without the broken spoke. Also, this stage was stopped halfway through because a car came onto the course and hit Mark Walters. We then restarted with the course left relatively unchanged and the legs fully loaded with lactic acid.

Day 6: St Georges circuit race. Kind of like Univest circuit except the hill is 3x as long, and the riders are faster...and it is after 5 days of racing. Finally a relatively calm day of racing, other than it was nearly 100 degrees so we went through a bottle about every 20-30 minutes. It is a good thing Todd and Laura were able to pick up all those extra bottles in the feed zone the day before otherwise we would have been hurting (more hurting than normal).

After the race may have been the highlight of the week for me, as I was selected for drug testing. Even though it was random testing, I still think it is cool because somewhere someone I don't know cares whether or not I'm racing clean. So that means I must be sort of good, right? Probably not, but we did have one more buffet dinner at the hotel and then hit the road, with $43 Canadian (to be split 8 ways) in our pockets for our efforts. Jackpot.

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.

Buck Miller writes in with reports from Canadian nationals and a criterium near his home, and he is excited to have an opportunity to travel to China with the Canadian national team to race the UCI HC category Tour of Qinghai Lake.

Miller Wins Buffalo Cobblestone Criterium, July 4th

A 3 man break went up the road on the 2nd lap, one Symmetrics and Ryan Roth, of team R.A.C.E. I knew there were a few good primes up for grabs, like a carbon crank from Bontrager, and lots of Rudy Project stuff. I did one lap in the pack, and through the start finish I attacked and closed the 25 second gap in half a lap. 3 were now 4.

We worked well together, and the first set of cobbles were horribly rough, with a crosswind. There was no place to hide. I was pretty shatterd from my Nationals weekend and driving home from Quebec on Monday, so I sat on over the cobbles and took my pulls elsewhere. The bell started ringing, and first up was some Rudy Glasses, that I snagged, then there was a Rudy bag, but I gave that to another rider in the break so he wouldn’t stop working the lap before we sprinted.

Then came the carbon cranks with 2 laps to go. Ryan Roth flatted, and the Symmetrics rider jumped me early. The 3rd rider n the break was sitting on me, not willing to pull, so I just killed it and caught the rider only 200m from the finish, after the 1st set of cobbles and before the 2nd.

The 3 of us started the cat and mouse game, but we had a minute or so. The sprint started, and I got it. It was a fun day, but very very hard. My legs were killing me all day, but I managed to pull it together o.k.

Next up for me is Tour of Qinghai Lake in China with the Canadaian National team. A 9 day 2.HC race at an average altitude of 3000m <--- yes, that's meters!

Buck Miller Races Canadian National Road Race Championships, July 1

Dear friends and sponsors - Sorry to disappoint at the Nationals. To make a long story short, I made the winning break, by bridging with Perras and Pariesen, we got on in 6k. Then I took a flyer attacking the break on the descent, because I knew it was going to re shuffle and I didn't want to be left behind with attacks. I was joined by Wholberg, the last guy I wanted to see coming up behind me from the break. He and I worked together for about half a lap, then the break caught us again, and sure enough, there were 5 riders that didn't make the cut.

Anyway, we were rolling through fine, nice and smooth, and with 3 laps to go, the gap was coming down to 30 seconds and going back up to 1 minute, on and off as Ryder Hesdjal would pull the pack. Perras wasn't digging it and he attacked on the climb which left myself, Rollin and Cam Evans behind. We were bridging slowly, and through the uphill feed zone I was looking around for my feeder, and let a small gap open, got my feed, and by the time I was ready to get back on, Rollin drilled it over the top of the short hill and I was cracked.

I went back to the pack, through the pack, and just rolled it in to the finish in the 40's.

Buck Miller Races Canadian National Criterium Championships, July 2

The crit was ok. Off the line I was in a break with 3 guys, 2 being Symmetrics, but they didn't like that combination, and left us out there for almost 25 laps. They brought us back ,and sent Tuft and Evans up the road to lap the field together, and that was it. I missed a small chase group for 3rd. I ended up winning the field sprint, until we got to the finish, and they messed up the lap counters and sent us through for one more lap. Oh well.

I rode hard all weekend, and made the National team because of it. I'm getting pretty fit, so China should still be crazy hard, but a little more fun.

Bucker

Cody 2nd at Cyclonauts Criterium Stafford Springs, CT, June 17

Cody writes:
Well I guess since the race was held at an auto race track the gods smiled on those who dressed similarly to those who typically inhabit the track grounds. I was screwed and Adam Myerson had one up on me with all his ink, piercings, and ever present wife beater shirt.

Rain threatened and there was a possibility of the race being cancelled due to the large volume of rubber and oil embedded in the track pavement. The basic track oval was broken up with a trip through a chicane on the infield, but this still allowed for a high pace. Some strong attacks went from the gun, but nothing stuck, and I though it would be a field sprint for sure.

The "Nerac Train" consisting of one person tried stringing the field out, while many racers tried their hand at attacking. I ended up on the bottom of the track, after the swarms, while Myerson followed a move from the top, using the banking to his advantage and holding the gap to the line.

Dillon 3rd at Cox Charities Cycling Classic, June 25

The squad used this $15,000 purse criterium event in down town Providence as a last warm up before the Fitchburg Longsjo stage race. The race began with numerous attacks from Matt White, Mike Cody, and Johs Huseby as the field slid around the circuit during a torrential rain storm. Josh Dillon finally made it to the front from his last row start position, and escaped from the field with his first attack. Joining him were Mark McCormark (Colavita), Frank Pipp (Target Training), and Patrick Walsh (CCB), and this group was able to stay away from the field.

Dillon was aggressive but when McCormack countered one of Dillon’s late race attacks, Pipp followed and Dillon could not quite get there. But Dillon outfoxed Walsh for the 3rd place podium spot, and Cody and Peck sprinted in for 7th and 11th respectively, making this a great pay day for the Fiordifrutta boys.

Josh wrote the following race report without much punctuation:

this was pretty sweet. before driving down to providence i checked out the national weather service report to see how wet it would be. it was then i learned that they actually have "tsunami warnings" and providence was, in fact, under tsunami warning. needless to say, there weren't any tsunami's in providence that day but we did get wet from heavy rain (i think they are a little loose with the "t" word since the tragedy in southeast asia).

but heavy rain is fine by me (it's not like i'm a baseball player and don't play if my tobacco gets all soaked) so we lined up for the $15,000 purse as scheduled. choosing to not take part in the "race to the start of the race" i lined up at the back. probably not the best idea as the field was fairly large and went very slowly through the corners and i was racing as hard as i could for the first 10 minutes trying to move through the field.

fortunately, about 2/3 of the way i ran into perera and he towed me the rest of the way. once i got there it was going really easy so i rolled through and took a flyer lap. frank pipp (targetraining) and mark mccormack (colavita) bridged up, towing a couple others with them. frank and mark made for some serious horsepower so once they started pulling through the break was established. great only 50 more laps to go. ugh.

by the time i saw 23 laps to go (1 mile laps) i was pretty bored of riding paceline was wondering if i could solo from there. after another eternity i saw 11 to go and thought i could go from there, so i attacked. after a lap, mark pulled me back and a lap later i attacked again. this time frank pulled me back, leaving us both out to dry as mccormack jumps.

"damnit" i said, and started pulling hard thinking frank would help pull too. after a long pull that got mark to within 20 meters frank jumped off and left me sitting there gas'ed and with no friends. "damnit" i said again. so it turns out i did get to ride the last 5 miles solo, just on the wrong side of frank and mark.