Cody Wins Collar City Criterium, Troy, NY, August 13

Fiordifrutta expanded its empire northward to Troy, NY following in the wake of Whitey the rabbit winning Friday Nights' NJ State Fair cross race and Josh Dillon wielding his fiery sword of doom brought down upon the poor souls at the Albany road race Saturday.

Curt Davis led the team announcing his return to big league racing in the upcoming GMSR. The goal for the day was 50% saturation levels in all moves in an effort to dominate the racing, not just win. The team left little time for warming up and took off from the gun, attacking the early laps on the narrow, bumpy, 7 corner course. Josh Gewirtz and Matt White started things off early and drew Mike Jones (HealthNet p/b Maxxis) out of the field.

Gewirtz used his reinvigorated sense of humor and impeccable sense of direction to get the rest of the field lost as he dropped off the pace with a broken cleat. Cody followed the move and after a few laps the small gap grew quickly. The group shed a few riders, with White, Cody, Jones, and Nick (Anthem-Blue Cross-Blue Shield) making the group. White was fresh from his Rabbit Judging contest at the New Jersey State Fair on Friday night and eager to make the move stick. Cody was looking to hone his sprint and form for the following weekends Criterium Nationals in Chicago, IL.

Back in the field the racing was heating up. Curt Davis and Chris Rozdilsky slipped up the road with two other riders and sat 30 seconds down on the break, but 30 up on the field. Davis and Roz ganged up on the break which included future guest rider Cory Burns (UNH) who dutifully (and wisely) rode a solid race impressing his potential employers.

Buck Miller, still high from his venture to 3000 meters in China and nearly losing his life to a hoard of Mongolian Bar-B-Quers, covered moves and avoided 'death by Ben's coach. Zawacki had his bars slip way down and toughed the race out to the finish and is probably eager to turn into a frat boy at Clemson this fall. With 10 to go Davis out foxed his breakaway companions by telling them he was going to go up the road just to change his kids diaper and would be back shortly.

Jones sensed Davis coming and pedaled 'harder' for a lap to prevent the catch. With two laps to go, Nick slipped up the road from the break and gained a few seconds, but Whitey timed his chase well pulling him back for a Jones-Cody sprint fest rematch from nearly a year ago. Cody forced Jones to lead it out, and passed him in the finale for the win with Whitey coming in 4th. Davis held on for 5th after soloing for 10 laps. The boys proved they are ready to take on the best amateurs in the country next weekend in Chicago, IL.

The team posted a couple of wins recently with some great photos of the Concord sprint, teamwork, and interviews.

Cody Wins New England Crit Championships, August 5th
Crushing the Concord Criterium

If the New England Crit Championships were fruit, the Fiordifrutta team made jam out of them on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in Concord, New Hampshire. In an effort to bolster the field size, promoters combined the Cat 3 racers with the P/1/2 racers. What this did in fact was make for the scariest crit we have done since we were...Cat 3 racers.

Moving along to the bones of the event was an excellent foursome of Todd Nordblom, Ben Zawacki, Josh Dillon, and Michael Cody. Todd and Ben did some great work early in the race covering moves, counter attacking to keep the pace high and settling most of the cat 3's in the back. Cody and Dillon moved up after the first 10 of 33 laps to start working a breakaway, but were met with far too many people willing to chase, but not pull through. Such is life.

Coming down to the last 10 laps a field sprint was inevitable so the boys went to work. Todd hit the front with four laps to go and buried himself for the better part of two laps. No sooner had he peeled off then Josh went to the front and kept the pace ultra high keeping Cody well out of trouble. On the top side of the course Amos Brumble (CCB) took to the front with Jake Hollenbach on his wheel giving Cody an excellent lead out into the last corner where Cody jumped the field on the outside of the left hand turn and sprinted away to victory

Dillon Wins NY Capital Region Road Race, August 12th

A powerful 6 man Fiordifrutta squad converged on this road race in upstate NY, to battle some local pros and shoot for a win. The 72 mile race consisted of three laps of a rolling course, and Josh Dillon wasted no time by going with a move on the first lap. He was joined by Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly) and a Westwood Velo rider and they proceeded to constantly gain time on the surging field as Fiordifrutta covered any dangerous moves that tried to get across.

Not wanting to risk a sprint, Dillon attacked his breakaway companions with 10 miles to go and soloed in for the win. Rozdilsky and Peck put together a lead out for Buck Miller who sprinted to 5th overall, with Gewirtz and Nordblom also making the top 10.

Miller Conquers Tour of Qinghai Lake, July 15-23

So, I survived. After that 5th stage, things didn't get "better" so to say, but we managed. The 6th 7th 8th and 9th days were all crazy hard. Two of the stages had 2 more climbs up to 13,000ft, and the other 2 "flat" days were again, super fast, and we spent a lot of time on the left side of the road, staring at the wheel in front of us, in a long single file line, trying not to smoke those little reflectors that sit about one foot from the edge of the pavement.

The 6th stage we averaged 51kph for the first hour and then with about 30k to go the rain started coming down, and made for the most dangerous field sprint I didn't contest in my life. Damn dude.

The 7th and 8th stages both horribly hammered us with rain and temperatures a few degrees above 32. At the tops of the mountains sometimes we couldn’t see further than 20ft in front of us.

We made it to the 9th stage with 5 of the 7 starters. One rider fell victim to severe fluid loss (out the wrong end if you know what I mean) and the other had some massive lump on his foot, and couldn't have his shoes on without pain. So all and all we managed to do pretty well considering the situation we were put in.

Trust me, the next time you get the chance to go to a race half way around the world that starts at 3000m above sea level, make sure you do the following.

A - Bring lots of coffee (pre-ground) and a French Press.
B - Spend at least 2 weeks at altitude before you go.
C - Bring lots of Imodium.
D - Bring lots of Jam (I know where you can get some good stuff!)
E - Bring tons of laundry soap.
F - Make sure you don't get to your hotel at 3am the morning of a 9 day stage race after 3 transfers and over 8000km of traveling.