Good Team Car

I don't know about you but ill buy one of these. I mean, yeah it is a poor mans Bentley, but still.
Check out these pics.

Ontario GP #1

Ontario GP #1

Today marked the second win of the season under my baby blue and white Tiaa-Cref uniform.
In junction with the final stage of Tour of California, non-stage race guys and local pro’s had a chance for there own glory in smoggy Ontario, California. With scattered clouds looming over the 7-corner 1.2-mile circuit and high winds, 140 guys started the 90-minute race. Represented well in the field was Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada pro cycling team, Successful living pro team and numerous local teams. The race started very quickly with the KB Homes Mexican National team taking a flyer on the first lap.
That break was willed in shortly and the attacks were pretty consistent all day long.

With a stiff head wind in on the backside of the course, it would be a great challenge to stay away. One dangerous move went away with 20 minutes to go that held 9 riders. While seating back waiting to see what’s going to happen, I started to lose patience and wanted to take a crazy pull and bring the gap down.

Well, my patience paid off and the break was caught with 3 laps to go. This by far was one of the craziest sprint finishes I have done in such a long time. Guys where yelling, hitting, pushing, slamming on brakes, chopping and everything else you could think about…its happen for 3 laps. After fighting for the wheels for one complete lap and being a nice guy, I had to turn that switch off and turn into the bad guy because I would lose 6-10 spots for being nice. So as I got evil, I stayed in the top 10 with 1 1/2 laps to go. Eric Saunders and his squad had numbers and set up the train with Sierra Nevada tailing right behind and me fighting everyone every one else off Dan Schmatz wheel.

From the last sweeping turn, I was 5 guys back (perfect position) because the sprint was a good 350m. Dan hit with about 200mm to go and gapped me pretty bad, I tried going to a bigger gear to take a run at him and my gear would not change (now I’m doing 1400 watts in a 53x14) so I just put my head down and put the skinny legs to work. It came down to a bike throw, which I won.

It feels good getting a win against some fast guys. So…that’s win number two and many more to come. I can’t wait to do a race with the team and get a killer lead out.

Results
1.Rahsaan Bahati- Tiaa-Cref
2.Dan Schmatz- Kodakgallery.com/Seirra Nevada
3. Jeremiah Wiscovitch - Succsesful Living Pro Cycling Team
4.Justin Williams- Major Motion

Up beat

Just to let you all know. I have been on my bike. Still training and doing what I need to do. Thanks for all the post. They help me get over it really fast. You guys are great.

On the "up beat" Neil over at Road Magazine did a cool story on me. Floyd Landis is on the cover and I'm in there some where. Check it out at your local bike shops or Barnes and Noble.

See ya...

OUT!!!

I WAS NOT PICKED FOR THE TOUR OF CA

OUT.

Individual TT

TT Course

The Individual TT is a good one. Its hard enough, but not crazy hard. I think someone like Mike Creed will do great. You leave the IBM laboratory parking lot and head 1k into a hill that i’s about 2k long. When you get to the top it shoots down hill into a left hand turn and you continue down hill for about 4k. Then you hit a slow false flat section that sucks. After you crest that, you continue on with some false flat down hill into a left-hander that's super fast. You stay on that road for about 8k and you start to go up hill very genteelly and then it shoots up for about 200m. This is where the fun begins. You go flying down this twisting down hill with a few sharp turns and back on the last drag to the finish. The final straight to the finish is about 6-7k long and all flat road. If it's windy during the TT, this will be a vedifficultult part of the course.

Still no word if IÂ’m racing yet.

sorry dont have pics, just don't have time to snap pics. Beth from (3cats photos) also works for the team will hook me up with some pics to add...

Stage Two Preview

Stage Two Previews.

Once again we start the race and about 10min in we have a 3mile climb. The stage today is really nice. It has nice European type roads, lots of climbing and not so many down hills. Sucks!! This stage has about six 4mile climbs and the last climb into San Jose is the back breaker. 18% for about 3miles, then you come flying into town and do laps in down town San Jose.

I don’t have much to say, I’m so tired, it took us 6hrs to do the stage and I’m so so tired.

Ill get back.

Stage one Preview of TOC

Tuesday February 14, 2006
Leaving the Bay area this morning was a bit chilly but not to bad. Before leaving the parking lot though, Vaughters said, “As you guys can see we have 9 guys here and we can only race 8, so…” I want to be optimistic about this race and knowing that every stage I can help my team and maybe I can pull something off. It also sucks knowing that I’m the fastest guy here and this race is not for fast guys, it’s for climbers. What will he do?

I really feel that I put in my time and I deserve to race.
Enough of that jazz, the ride today was pretty cool. Long, windy and hilly. Stage one will be pretty tough the first 45min. There are two climbs in the first 20min that are about 10min long each. Then you get a nice little kicker again about 20min later. From there it rolls for a while kind of up and down. We hit some big rollers near Point Rayes then it settles down again. The last 15miles are really fast, long down hill and long straight road into Santa Rosa. There we do 3 closing circuits of a 3mile loop. I feel pretty good about stage one. Tomorrow we will ride stage 2 but the plan is to ride a bit harder and I guess from there JV will have pick the team.

Time for a massage….

6 days B4 TOC

Monday February 13th (its my solar return)

Today was such a beautiful day. The weather is awesome and city seem very calm and especially the airport.
It’s nice having a late afternoon flight, because I usually fly out very early in the morning because I'm flying into another time zone but today I’m going up north to San Francisco and I had a 2:45pm flight.

When I got to check in, there were like 4 people in line, so I skipped the line and went to e-check in because I only had a duffle bad. So I slide my card in to get my ticket and pushed the button that said 1 bag and usually someone comes over and check your ID and tag your bag, well about 3 positions over, there was two people working and they were both helping people so I just waited, thinking someone would come over and assist me. I waited about ten minutes and no one came, no one even acknowledged that I was there. I walk over to get her attention and this angry lady says “this position is closed, NO ONE IS STANDING IN LINE SO THAT MEANS ITS CLOSED” I want you guys to know that the ticker above the check in said 1K PREMEIR CHECK IN ONLY, well that’s me and nothing gave any indication that area was closed. She unwillingly helped me and as she’s walking away says, “You don’t go where there is no people inline”. If I had more time I would have ask to speak to a manager because…just because. Chinga guey.

Keep God First.

Feb 7th

I knew coming into this week which rides ill be doing and what type of efforts ill be ask to do. Today leaving the hotel I felt dame good. I pulled pretty much 45min with Mike Creed up the hill to Pinos Altos. Brad Hoff is under the weather so he turned back and Mike Creed had a double day so after 2 hours he turned back. So that left Mike Freedman and myself for a nasty hilly day. I have to say, they weather was perfect, 65, no wind and clear blue skies. The next climb would take about 30min. I did it in 28min. The goal for me was to keep my adv watts at 300-320. I did not accomplish that, I finished at 298 adv watts. I felt stronger and a whole lot smoother. Freedman saw the 1/4 mile sign to the top and picked up the pace. I knew i had to fight so I dug so deep into something I have never dug into (on a hill) and i caught him. My body felt numb and my hand were shaking out of control.

We pulled over where Allen Lim had some food for us and cold drinks. We turned around to head home and the plan for riding back was to have short efforts on the climbs. I took a beating on the first climb and came back strong on the second climb. Mike attacked me and then it was on. We attacked each other all the way to the top of the final climb. It hurt, but it was fun and it gave me more confidence to ride harder going up hill.

Allen pulled us over to see our max watts on the efforts. Mike was 1300 and I was 1200. So now we are about 1hr 1/2 away from home and it home moderate climb home before the long boring down hill. So we just cruised it in eating and drinking thinking about tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, we are doing the same ride but, we will add another climb.

User Pass RR

User Pass Road Race.

I don’t ever, ever, ever, ever, want to do a pro 1-2 race at 7:30 in the morning. It’s just ridiculous. For those of you, who don’t think it’s a big deal. Ill walk you through a short “time table”

(The day before)
7pm eat dinner
8:30 relax in the hotel
9:00 I find out the breakfast in the hotel doesn’t start on Sundays until 7am
9:15 I get out of bed and roll to target (bought oatmeal, oj and a bowl)
9:45 I’m back at the hotel

Day of race
5:00am alarm from the hotel (I told them 5:15 not 5:00)
5:20am I finally get up
5:30 I cook some oatmeal in the microwave w/ banana con cranberries
5:55 all packed and out the door going to the race
6:05 leave the parking lot…still sleep
7:00 arrive at race and its still DARK!!
7:15 still DARK!!
7:30 dust
7:35 race start

Within the first 5miles of the simi hilly/rolling race Chad Hartley and Mike Creed getaway with about 5 other guys and we never saw them again For a bit, the pack did chase but for the most part we road temp the whole race.
Chad didn’t feel as good as he needed toward the end of the race so Creed finished 3rd Chris Baldwin 2nd and a local guy won.

My group finished about 8minutes behind with Brad Huff, Nathan and myself.
Legs…they were okay, felt a little sluggish and not responsive but the only thing I could think about the whole race was “Tour of California” so every opportunity I had to ride hard I did.

Next, 7 more days at altitude in Silver City. The plan is to get another 3-4 day block of 1000ft of climbing and 5-6hrs of riding.

Final Day Of Block

Today was the last day of the block and the plan was to get in a good 4-5hr ride at endurance pace. The first 30min of the ride was like race pace. I mean Creed was just drilling it and I mean I was questioning if I would make the whole ride. After about an hour, my legs started to come around and even got excited that I didn’t feel like complete crap. Around 2hrs in, we decided to take 30min pulls and that made the ride go by a lot faster. For those of you who have done (tour of gila) we basically did the second stage and finished on that 9mile climb at about 17% at some points. The pic of the big head kid on the ground. Thats Mike Creed, he's tired...YES!!! How's it feel Mike...hahaha, dont feel good huh? About time your tired The pic of the long road...yeah, it sucked the road was 40miles. No turns. Its so far, you cant even see the mountain we had to climb.

We will leave in the morning to Tucson for the “shoot out” (a training ride) then to Phoenix for a road race Sunday Morning.

Pics from today’s ride.

8000ft of climbing.

Yesterday was yet another crazy day of ridding. Very hilly, windy and most of all, cold! Everyday before I go out, I look at the weather channel and it says high today 65, but it never fills like 65, more like 45. Its so up and down here, you get hot when you go up and cold when you head down.
I didn’t feel so well late into the ride. It sucks when you have to climb all day long. I try to be optimistic about it and know that it will help me kill people in the races that suite me…but some on!!

Here are a few pics of the highest points of the climb yesterday. Not sure the name of it, maybe (Blackwood’s?)