Rob's Report #2

Halfway done!

Buffalo 3/18/06
Bitter cold and a fierce wind greeted the riders in Buffalo to kick off the 2nd weekend of racing. Several attacks went off the front early on, but nothing stuck until Joe Halter (Handlebars) made his move part way thru the first lap. Rob Dietrick (JW Dundee’s), that’s me, jumped on his wheel and Chris Riley (Preferred Care) soon joined us in our get away. Joe was the hammer pilot of the day as he set a blistering pace that soon got us nearly out of site of the group, but unfortunately popped Chris off. Joe continued to hammer the pace literally towing me around the wind swept course while Kevin Mahoney and Dwight Roth (both JW Dundee’s) worked to keep the field in check while I was up the road. With Riley gone from the break, the Orange Armada poured the coals on the chase along with help from point leader Jay Joslyn and they caught our break at the start of the third & final lap. The hot pursuit dumped a number of riders out the back. All was held in check most of the final lap. Steve Burgett rolled off the front & I decided to give it another stab and rolled up there with him. We were quickly joined by Todd Scheske (Preferred Care) and Gary Egan (Full Moon Vista). Our get away attempt fell apart and another quartet including Kevin Mahoney and Egan made a break in the closing 2k. The pack closed in the final meters with Jason Skalski (Preferred Care) lauching his killer sprint to take the win and Mahoney hanging on for a solid 3rd! I managed my first top 10, 9th.

Rochester 3/19/06
An early morning snow storm didn’t deter the Rochester Giro going off, as the cold blustery winds cleaned the roads off for the start. Some early attacks from the field set a blistering pace in the first few miles. The relentless pace down W. Bloomfield Rd. in a tough cross wind set the stage for Adam Garlapow (Shikluna) and Volodymyr Spantchak (Full MoonVista) to get off the front & they were quickly joined by point leader Jay Joslyn (Shikluna). The chase group cranked up the pace on Taylor Road with a few riders getting spit out the back. The big chase pack never really got their efforts coordinated and let the lead trio stay out front by 40 seconds all the way back to the park. The leaders nearly blew it as they missed the turn onto Pond Rd. in the final circuit. They quickly recovered and maintained an edge with Adam Garlapow coming off the lead group and returning to the peleton after some hard pulls to keep his teammate in the lead. The pack closed to within 8 seconds, but never closed the gap allowing Jay Joslyn to take yet another win with Spantchak a fine 2nd. The field scrambled to the line with Ben Jamesson (Shikluna) jumping out for third, Todd Scheske (Preferred Care) 4th, Rob Dietrick (JW Dundee’s) 5th, and Gary Egan (Full Moon Vista) 6th.