Stage 3 Tour of Gila
Opportunity Missed
Today was a bit nervous for the Cref boys and me. Not because we didn’t have a good enough team or we were scared to race, but the concern was, will I be able to get over the 2 major climbs and the hard rollers coming into town for the flat finish.
From the start we had 4-5 big rollers before hitting the first main climb. Attacks started right away and a small group eased away to get a 1-2minute gap on the field at the base of the climb. Team United Pro set a high tempo early in the climb but riders where so excited they attacked and made the pace even higher. I started the climb about 20 back and when the temp slowed, I quickly moved to the front and made it over the climb in the top 10. Sigh of relief.
From there its pretty much down hill with some rollers and one last climb through the feed zone and then you get this crazy decent, which half of the field wanted to be the leader down the hill. I did the decent about 6 riders back and I felt super safe.
In the middle of the race, we where going pretty slow and my body started to shut down and I needed something to get going again. So I went all the way to the back of the field and slowly worked my way to the front just in time for the race to the final bog climb into Silver city. At this point in the race the two leaders are about 5min up the road and the boys (TIAA-CREF) started to help United Pro chase. They did an outstanding job bringing the gap down and it wasn’t easy. I had the whole team rallying around me and they gave me 100% so I can have a chance at the stage win.
With about 3k to go, the leaders are only 30 seconds ahead and that’s when Danny Pate took this killer pull and split the field from 70 to about 20 guys. I was sitting perfect on Gord Frasher will going into the last corner with 1k to go, Danny pulled off and I took a huge breath because he really hurt me (but he had to do it, to bring back the two guys). At this point, I’m thinking, just hold on and you can win. Well I held on as long as possible. I was sitting 5th wheel and it was a nasty cross wind and I was out of the draft. Chris Wherry (united pro) was giving Gord (health net) a lead out and when he punched it, I had nothing.
I rolled in somewhere in the top 15 maybe (have not seen official results yet). The team was content. The DS was happy that I made it over all the climbs in good shape and I was really upset. Its not fun putting you team on the line and you don’t close the deal. It truly sucks.
Today was a bit nervous for the Cref boys and me. Not because we didn’t have a good enough team or we were scared to race, but the concern was, will I be able to get over the 2 major climbs and the hard rollers coming into town for the flat finish.
From the start we had 4-5 big rollers before hitting the first main climb. Attacks started right away and a small group eased away to get a 1-2minute gap on the field at the base of the climb. Team United Pro set a high tempo early in the climb but riders where so excited they attacked and made the pace even higher. I started the climb about 20 back and when the temp slowed, I quickly moved to the front and made it over the climb in the top 10. Sigh of relief.
From there its pretty much down hill with some rollers and one last climb through the feed zone and then you get this crazy decent, which half of the field wanted to be the leader down the hill. I did the decent about 6 riders back and I felt super safe.
In the middle of the race, we where going pretty slow and my body started to shut down and I needed something to get going again. So I went all the way to the back of the field and slowly worked my way to the front just in time for the race to the final bog climb into Silver city. At this point in the race the two leaders are about 5min up the road and the boys (TIAA-CREF) started to help United Pro chase. They did an outstanding job bringing the gap down and it wasn’t easy. I had the whole team rallying around me and they gave me 100% so I can have a chance at the stage win.
With about 3k to go, the leaders are only 30 seconds ahead and that’s when Danny Pate took this killer pull and split the field from 70 to about 20 guys. I was sitting perfect on Gord Frasher will going into the last corner with 1k to go, Danny pulled off and I took a huge breath because he really hurt me (but he had to do it, to bring back the two guys). At this point, I’m thinking, just hold on and you can win. Well I held on as long as possible. I was sitting 5th wheel and it was a nasty cross wind and I was out of the draft. Chris Wherry (united pro) was giving Gord (health net) a lead out and when he punched it, I had nothing.
I rolled in somewhere in the top 15 maybe (have not seen official results yet). The team was content. The DS was happy that I made it over all the climbs in good shape and I was really upset. Its not fun putting you team on the line and you don’t close the deal. It truly sucks.
posted by Rahsaan Bahati @ 2:22 PM
1 Comments:
At 7:06 PM,
mansur said…
I started reading the coverage on cyclingnews and came to your blog to get the DL. Good job making it over the climbs! Tomorrow is an excellent opportunity for you to win, good luck. stay strong
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