Dillon Wins York Beach Criterium, Maine, September 14th

Even though our directors had thought it was time to dust off the ol' cross bikes, we (Josh Lipka, Matt White, and myself) decided to take advantage of a picture perfect New England early fall weekend by putting in a couple last digs on the hardtop. Friday evening featured the York Beach circuit, literally a stones throw (or short toss) from the ocean. Given the number of strong sprinters in the field we were pushing the pace for a break.

However after I had a short go off the front, the ageless Mark McCormack countered and had established a fairly dangerous ~20 second break with one other "lucky" rider who was hanging onto Mark's wheel by a thread. Never fear though, Lipka singlehandedly pulled back Mark with a mighty 4 lap pull. Allow me to repeat the previous sentence as it warrants emphasis...Lipka singlehandedly pulled back Mark. Dang.

Whitey quickly jumped on the counterattacks with field back together, which the rest of the field responded to immediately, and all of a sudden we were 1 lap to go with the looking at a mass sprint. Then it dawned on me that I could win from 1k out, so that's what I did. Matt had pulled me to the front and I jumped, and got just enough hesitation by the field to hold off the fast charging sprint at the line.

Dillon 5th at Portsmouth Criterium, NH, September 16th

Two days later was the Portsmouth Criterium, just down the road from York. Given a nearly identical field to Friday evening, we would try to play it the same way, however we were going to have to manage without Lipka's diesel engine. Also, there was a healthy prime offering that Matt keenly picked up on, and we decided to roll that into the game plan.

So Part 1, win primes...Part 2, win the race by getting in break. Out of the gates Matt stormed to a couple of prime lap wins, part 1 check. And following the second prime Whitey won, I followed the counterattack which set up the race winning break, part 2 half-check.

But after a couple laps, some of the stronger sprinters joined the break, part 2 un-check. And having made it to two laps to go and not wanting to go to the line with Mike Cody (former Fiordifrutta rider turned Jelly Belly pro), I jumped from the group. Well, it seems everybody and their sister was expecting me to do that and ultimately I just really wore myself out for the inevitable sprint against the rest of the break.

Fortunately, Matt continued his strong sprinting out of the field, which gave us 5th and 8th...and for me 64 days of racing in the books.

Burns Wins Whiteface Mtn Hill Climb, NY, September 16

It was cold! I woke up Sunday morning around 6 to get ready for a "brisk" 8 o'clock uphill time trial at Whiteface Mtn. in Lake Placid NY. It’s a bear of a climb at an average of 9% for 8.2 miles with pitches of 12% at times. As I put on all my winter gear for the ride down I had to laugh because less then a week ago we raced in more than 90 degree temps in PA and now I was leaving a hotel room at 35 degrees!

I am no "climber" but for my taste is was what I think of as perfect climbing conditions. Windy, foggy, cold.....delicious!! Not the type of conditions for records but either way, away I went. As I arrived I couldn't help but get a little nervous as all the climber types started to show up. On the start line this kid of all of 130 pounds comes up next to me, AWESOME, now I gotta follow this lanky lad all the way up? As I look around there were a few of them that looked at the mountain like I look at a rolling time trail...drooling, and excited for the day.

It was great, these young bucks took off so fast and I just sat on their wheels until their heads became one with the stem and handle bar and then I simply just rode off to the side of them and continued my way up the mountain at my own pace the best way I know how to race, on my own!

It was great like I said, all the fog seemed to take away the gradient of the mountain. All in all it was a good day, I would have like to have broken the hailed 45 minute mark but with the wind that day at the top and the drastic change in racing conditions from a week ago it was not to be. I won the day though and that’s something that I haven't been able to say a lot this year. Not bad

Oh, and it was 28 degrees at the top. What a day.

The Fiordifrutta boys have had a busy finish to the road season, and Josh Dillon writes up the final races below. The squad looks forward to the start of the cyclocross season with frequent UCI podium riders Matt White, Jamey Driscoll, Toby Marzot, and Johs Huseby.

Dillon Second at Concord Criterium, August 4

It was hot! So hot that immediately following taking the sprint for 2nd, Todd and I ducked into the nearest house we saw with a person in the yard who kindly accommodated our request for water. Not only did she bring us into the protective cool shade of her home, she had her daughter and friend (both bikini clad) serve us numerous glasses of ice water. Yes, New Hampshire hospitality is spot on.

What race? Oh ya, the Concord Criterium...so we had a compact and potent squad of Johs, Toby, Nordo and I. We had Johs picked for our sprint man, and the other 3 race for the break. That break came on just the 2nd lap as Todd put in a dig on the course's only climb. He had 7 guys with him, so I bridged up on the next time up the climb to give us better numbers and we went to work.

With about 5 to go Teddy King (Priority Health) put in a big solo effort. After we tried to bring it back for a couple laps Todd and I spent the following laps arguing who was going to get to the lead the other out, alas I conceded and Todd dropped me off on the last corner to take the sprint.

Green Mountain Stage Race, August 31 – September 3

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend of weather to race bikes, and race bikes we did when we lined up 7 deep with Riff, Brooks, Lipka, Roz, Driscoll, Tobias, and me. Starting with the opening gun, Fiordifrutta led out the short prologue up the eastern wall of the Appalachian Gap as Jamey scored a 7th place finish. Toby followed that up the next day with a 6th place in the 2nd stage, as he drove the only break that stuck on an aggressive day of racing.

The 3rd stage, a 104 mile march over several of the biggest climbs in the state was animated by the Fiordifrutta team, which put itself in all the moves and concluded with an 8th place on the finishing climb up the western slope of Appalachian Gap. With only the Burlington Criterium remaining, Fiordifrutta was very aggressive utilizing all riders to push the pace of the race. A late race break gave us a 4th place on the stage. At the end of the weekend it was 6th, 14th, and 19th in the overall classification.

Chris Thater Memorial Criterium, NRC, Binghamton, NY, August 26

How come nobody told me about this race in previous years?! It is a wicked sweet course, and really good prize money, and it is right nearby in upstate New York. And it is NRC, so there were points available to help us hold our top amateur ranking. In fact, a top 8 finish is enough points to move us into the top 15 of all teams in the country.

Unfortunately we (Hayden and I) came up a little short with 14th, but we did have a ball racing our bikes, taking primes, bridging gaps, attacking the field. It was awesome, and we actually made money on the weekend. Really maximized the pro-am experience all around.


Univest GP (UCI 1.2), September 8-9

Ask anybody who has raced Univest, and they will tell you the winner (and the rest of the top 20) is always decided on the finishing circuits that account for the final 60k of the race. That is how you race Univest, wait until the circuits, 10 yrs of results can't be wrong....except this year. With temperatures in the mid-90s and the humidity equally as high a lethargic field was content to the let the early break gain over 10 minutes.

Racing 101 would tell you that the early break would fry in such extreme heat and easily be reeled in as the field started racing each other. What went wrong is the field wasn't allowed to enter the finish circuit because the break and its remnants had already completed a lap and therefore the scoring would have been too messy. As it turned out, the officials couldn't keep track of just the riders that were allowed to enter the circuits, let alone the other 170 riders that weren't.

So having no riders in the break meant we were sent home for the day, having to salvage the weekend with the criterium the following day. The criterium featured a new course and we raced hard, made it into several breaks and had a go at the sprint which resulted in two in the top 20. Not the dream come true we had hoped for, but at least we got to get down to some racing.