Newlywed Bissell Pro Cycling speedster Frank Pipp dug deep into his bag of tricks in an effort to outscheme a powerful Colavita armada at last nights mid-week Fuze Salisbury Criterium, part of the Giordana Crossroads Classic in North Carolina.
With full squads from Colavita, Mountain Khakis, DLP and Kenda in attendance, Pipp was ably supported by the previous nights 4th place finisher Cody O'Reilly, Peter Latham and Andy Jacques Maynes. With the race starting at 8:45pm on a technical, 8 corner downtown circuit, it was not long before the attacks started flying down main street. Pipp, making the most of his positioning at the head of the peleton, saw an opening only 15 minutes into the 60 minute slugfest and launched off the front. He was quickly tagged by Colavita speedster Sebastian Haedo and Mountain Khakis' Isaac Howe, and the trio began the arduous task of advancing their lead on the aggressive peleton.
After several laps of lung busting effort, vigilant marking by Pete Latham and Andy Jacques-Maynes saw the impetus taken out from the bunch, and the gap to Pipp and the other escapees extended out to 35 seconds.
With Pipps ability to win races from small breakaways, Colavita knew they had to send another rider up to the break to offset his cunning, and after rapidfire attempts by Luca Damiani, Alejandro Borrajo and Kyle Walmsley, it was Luis Amaran that escaped the peleton's clutches and began making headway on the break.
Over the final 15 laps Pipp was forced to do the lions share of the work as Amaran closed in. To the roar of the crowd Amaran made the juncture with only two corners remaining, flying past the breakaway. Outgunned against the two Colavitas, Pipp latched onto his wheel and coming out of the final turn was forced to begin the sprint. With 100 metres to go it looked like his power would save the day, but alas Haedo and Howe managed to rush by on the line. Andy Jacques-Maynes was 8th.
"It was great to be able to represent Bissell at this excellent series put on by Giordana," said Pipp.
Pipp and the Bissell riders will now rest up before this weekends NRC double header in Charlotte and Hanes Park.
- Jono
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