Cody Wins North Carolina Grand Prix #1 UCI Cyclocross, November 18

Matt White and Michael Cody took the long drive down to North Carolina to gain some UCI points and get in some warm weather training. The duo got away together early in the race, and together they held off the field to go 1-2 on the day. Cyclingnews.com has complete coverage including podium shots, close-ups, and plenty of race photos of both Cody and White.

White Wins North Carolina Grand Prix #2 UCI Cyclocross, November 19

Matt White was out for victory in day 2 of the NC races, and he escaped alone on the first lap. White put his cornering skills to work to take the win, with Cody just behind in 3rd. Once again full coverage is on cyclingnews.com with podium pictures and plenty of great photos.

Bay State Cyclocross UCI Cyclocross, November 25

A strong Fiordifrutta contingent stormed Sterling, MA to contest round #5 of the Verge New England Cyclocross Series. Matt White was trying to hold onto his series leader jersey, but with Tim Johnson back in New England, this would be a difficult task. Johnson did take the win (despite Matt’s bunny hopping to 4th place), and the rest of the squad finished up with Huseby in 8th, Cody in 11th, Josh Dillon in 14th, and Peck in 19th. You can read a full report on cyclingnews.com

Driscoll Wins Crank Brothers US Gran Prix of Cyclocross Title, November 19th

Jamie Driscoll finished the last two races in the six race series in fine style to take the overall championship for under 23 men. Driscoll rode to 5th place in Saturday’s Rad Cup in Lakewood, Washington and 2nd in the mudfest of Portland’s Scion Stumptown Cup on Sunday. As the top under-23’er in the country, Driscoll gains an automatic spot on the US team for the Cyclocross World Championships. You can see full stories on the races here and here.

Dillon Races in GP Stad Hasselt Cyclocross, Belgium, November 18th

Josh Dillon is spending a few weeks in Europe this fall and has the opportunity to race again the best cross riders in the world. In this UCI C2 event, Dillon managed to avoid being lapped by Sven Nys and Bart Wellens to finish with a classified 32nd place. You can read a full report from the race on cyclingnews.com and attached is a photo (courtesy Pezcyclingnews) that shows Dillon arguing with a Belgium who is trying to mess up the sand castle that Josh is building mid-race.

Matt White won his second UCI cross race in two weeks and you can read the full coverage on cyclingnews.com for both the Saturday and Sunday event. Velonews also covered Sunday’s win.

White 3rd at Lower Allen UCI Cyclocross, November 11

This week in the adventures of the Fiordifrutta Cyclocross team brought the boys down to Harrisburg PA for some UCI’n at the Lower Allen Recreation Center. This race was another big opportunity for the cross superstars to hop up on that podium with some top professional riders. The team for the day was Matt White, Michael Cody, Dan Timmerman and Jamie Driscoll.

The course was a twisted hillside of high speed corners, sand traps, and mulch pits, with a gravel start and finish line. There was a little moisture in the grass making for some dicey corners perfect for the Michelin Mud tires. Fresh off his solo win last week, White attacked the opening lap looking to repeat.

The attack drew out the day’s strong men, White, Davide Frattini (Colivita) and Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly). The second group contained Cody, Timmerman, and Driscoll battling Luca Damiani (some Italian Team), Chris Horner (Specialized), Tristen Schouten (Trek/VW), and Matt Kraus (Alan).

Timmerman eventually blew that group apart to take 4th on the day, scattering the rest of the group over a minute or so. Driscoll and Cody held on strong for 10 and 11th respectively. Mean while up front, White was forced to use his head, his self admitted weakest attribute as a cyclist.

The 3 leaders were equally navigating the tricky sections of the course, attacking and countering for a good show. Suddenly Powers was gone, off the front, and White looked to be in trouble behind Frattini. With 5 laps to go Powers had made his move, and now White was working to close a gap to Frattini, who was apparently having a heart attack from following Powers.

White closed to Frattini with a lap to go, and let it come to a sprint, a two up skinny guy sprint to the finish, it must have been funny to watch. White barely lost that sprint after listening to the announcer talk about how badly Frattini was going to spank him for the last 2 laps. Here is a shot just before the podium presentation.

White-Driscoll 1-3 at Highland Park UCI Cyclocross, November 12

Highland Park was relocated due to some flooding to a brand venue this year. It wouldn’t be the hard pack criterium that everyone was used to. Rain turned the hilly course into a mud slide complete with rivers flowing down the course. The same team (but without Timmerman) was present on Sunday as Saturday, but people thought Dan Timmerman was there because we all looked about as scruffy as Dan once we were covered in mud.

Dan even made cyclingnews.com from his couch back in Ithaca or is that Hamblen, I can’t tell the difference. Cody led the opening lap after an amazing show of athletic prowess in the first turn no there weren’t barriers or style points available, he was crashing, and Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly) is laughing at him. But he recovered beautifully, and kept on pushing.

White took over around the end of the first lap, and ripped open a nice gap to rest of the field, rode that momentum for a few more laps, and the race was his. He kept a cool head, kept pushing, kept the crashes to a minimum, and crossed the line with a safe gap for his second win of the season.

The exciting race on the day was for 2nd place, with Jamie Driscoll right on the heals of Chris Horner, with Cody only a few seconds behind Jamie, and Davide Frattini only a few seconds behind Cody. These gaps were held for lap after lap, but each rider rode so steadily the finish order never changed. Horner got a real sampling of FiordiFrutta today with the team surrounding him taking 1st, 3rd and 4th, hopefully he took some notes for his sake. He was jammed!

Dan Timmerman has been racing north of the border and writes the following race report from Canada’s only UCI cyclocross event. You can read about the event on cyclingnews.com and a podium shot of Dan in a funny hat. He promises to wear a hat from his sponsors in the future.

Timmerman 2nd at Aurora Cyclocross, Canada, November 5th

Fiordifrutta's Dan Timmerman raced the Aurora Cyclocross race in Aurora, Ontario last weekend after spending the week at the Canadian Cycling Centre in Dundas, Ontario. The centre put Timmerman through all kinds of unfamiliar training like yoga, plyometrics, and actual mid-week bicycle riding. His main competition for the race would be Greg Reain who spends most of his time racing in Europe and was home for Canadian nationals the week after.

After a few riders made early attempts, Timmerman settled in well off the front with Reain on his wheel. The two went pull for pull the whole race. Each rider made an attempt to drop the other, but none were successful.

Going onto the last lap, Reain rode the sand pit that Timmerman opted to run and was able to make an attack coming out. Timmerman quickly chased him down just in time to make another bobble at the top of a run up. He again clawed his way back, feeling the burn of all the lunges and suicide sprints he had done a few days before.

Timmerman's fatal mistake would be in the final corner where he slid his wheel out on the gravel and rolled in for second place. In hindsight it would have been beneficial for Timmerman to have made a move well before that as there was not much room to pass in a sprint afterward. Oh well....scout out the course better next time. A lesson learned as the rider travels back to the states to race the Lower Allen Classic next weekend.

This past weekend was a fantastic show of strength for Fiordifrutta cyclocross racers, so check out the below reports and this win by Cory Burns with a photo on Velonews.

White Wins Cycle-Smart International UCI Cyclocross, Northampton, MA – November 5th

Matt White took the elite field by storm with a solo win on Sunday. After winning the race to the first corner, White jumped away to gain a small gap, as a large chase group consolidated behind him. That group included two teammates, Mike Cody and Johs Huseby, which was enough to foil chasers throughout the hour long event. When Davide Frattini (Colvavita) finally separated himself from the group, it was too late and White held his gap to the finish. Huseby came around Mark McCormack in the sprint to line for 3rd place.

You can read all about the race on Cyclingnews. Cody ended up 9th with two more Fiordifrutta boys, Dillon and Peck, in 14th and 15th. With the win, White takes over the leader’s jersey in the Verge New England Cyclocross Series with three events to go.

Driscoll Maintains U-23 Leader’s Jersey in US Gran Prix of Cyclocross after Colorado Events, November 4-5th

Jamey Driscoll put in great rides at last weekend’s USGP events in Longmount and Boulder, Colorado to retain his lead after four of six events. Against the fastest riders in the country, Driscoll finished right up at the top and you can reach about the events on Cyclingnews.com with a great photos here.

White and Cody Take 3rd and 5th at Chainbiter UCI Cyclocross, Farmington, CT – November 4th

The Winding Trails park in Farmington hosts one of New England’s top cyclocross events, and a full field of elite men took the line in beautiful fall weather. Matt White and Mike Cody made the front group which came down to a battle between Fiordifrutta and Colavita teammates Mark McCormack and Davide Frattini. Colavita came out on top as Frattini escaped in the closing laps, but White and Cody finished a strong 3rd and 5th respectively.

In the next group back, Johs Huseby put in a strong ride for 8th, with Josh Dillon overcoming any tendency to endo his bike in the sand pit to finish 11th. Peck brought up the rear for Fiordifrutta but still managed to sneak in for 14th.

Huseby 3rd at Canton Cup Cyclocross, October 29

The annual Canton Cup in Massachusetts is one of the best local races of the cross season. With so few weekends of local races and so many UCI race weekends - this is a joy for more reasons than one. It is only 40 minutes from my house, a major plus, and the course is truly a blast. It is fast and wide open with several technical corners and short steep ups. The course has excellent transitions. It never felt as if they're just throwing something in for no reason.

Matt White and I were the two from Fiordifrutta representing and we knew we would have to battle with Mark McCormack and Jesse Anthony - the ClifBar teammates. Jesse had gone around before the start trying to get us to keep the first few laps easy, but that only lasted so long. Before we knew it the race was off and it was a drag race for the first few hundred meters. Even half way into the first lap, there was still a big group at the front. After 2 laps, we had separated from the rest of the field in a small group of 5. Jesse, Mark, Toby Marzot, Whitey and I were all there. Finally Mark attacked and the four of us kept riding at a similar pace and Whitey soloed across to Mark and left the three of us to fight it out.

Coming into 3 laps to go, we were getting closer and closer to Mark and Whitey. We fought very hard and with an especially hard lap with 2 to go, we caught the two leaders and were back to a group of 5 with one lap to go. Half way through the last lap, Jesse attacked and only Mark could stay with him. This left Toby and I in 3rd and 4th to fight it out as Whitey had gotten a whole wad of grass or maybe it was even twine entwined in his cassette.

White was able to continue, but not at the initial pace he was setting - he was right behind Toby and I. With about 200 meters to the finish line, there was a pit and a couple of sets of barriers. I knew I was stronger than Toby in the finish - so I attacked going into the hurdles and knew I'd come out hot and be ready to finish it all off strong. In the finale, I was third, Toby was just behind me and then Whitey about 15 seconds back.

Peck 2nd at Hardwick Vineyard and Winery Cyclocross, October 28

Chris Peck and Curt Davis lined up in torrential rains that turned an already mountain bike oriented course into a muddy suffer fest. The race in Ashford, CT is known for its technical sections and Davis even decided to start the race on his mountain bike! From the start, Vermont mountain biker Ethan Gilmour jumped away from the front group, leaving Peck to battle with Chris Jones (Target Training) and Dan Cody (NCC).

Gilmour’s technical skills brought him the victory, and Peck, Jones, and Cody traded spots repeatedly after numerous bobbles and falls in the mud. Peck took advantage of two crashes by Cody on the last lap to take second, with Jones in 4th.