Tiaa-Cref First North America Win
Tiaa-Cref First North America Win
It felt good to sleep in past 8:00 today. The crit didn’t start till 3:15 so we had all day to guff around and go for an easy spin before the evening crit. On the ride this morning, my legs felt pretty decent and I was really shocked, I mean this is my first stage race all year.
After getting back to the hotel, I took a shower and had a sandwich before taking a 2hr. On the ride over to the race, my legs felt horrible and I started to think…what happen?
So, I figured when the race start, ill chill for a minute and see what happens, but they felt worse and worse so I went to option 2, do a couple of sprints to open up the legs. Well that worked and I won two money primes in the process, a $50 and $100. The $50 prime came really easy. The second one…wow, I came from like 300m back to nip Curtis Gunn at the line.
Danny Pate and all the boys road really well but also really smart. We didn’t use too much energy because tomorrow will be a very hard day. Mike Lang and Danny Pate were in a break that was about 50seconds at one point during the race, however Health Net and other teams brought it back just in time for a field sprint.
We had the numbers to do a killer lead-out, but I felt confident that if I just followed Gord’s wheel I could take him. Chad Hartley had to do the dirty work by keeping everyone off my wheel going into the final laps…and he did a great job putting his ass on the line for me.
Going into the last two corner Chris Wherry (united pro) once again gave Gord a lead out only this time I was able to hold the wheel and contest the sprint. I gave Gord a gap entering the last corner so I could take a run at him and maybe I gave him a bit too much. As we started to sprint, I made another mistake by taking the inside line where the street was really rough and as I torque on the bike, my bike wheel was going no where but left and right. I moved left with about 50m to go and I took off like a rocket. At this time Gord has his hands up, not knowing I was going about 4-5mph faster than him and I took the win.
Thanks Gord!
It felt good to sleep in past 8:00 today. The crit didn’t start till 3:15 so we had all day to guff around and go for an easy spin before the evening crit. On the ride this morning, my legs felt pretty decent and I was really shocked, I mean this is my first stage race all year.
After getting back to the hotel, I took a shower and had a sandwich before taking a 2hr. On the ride over to the race, my legs felt horrible and I started to think…what happen?
So, I figured when the race start, ill chill for a minute and see what happens, but they felt worse and worse so I went to option 2, do a couple of sprints to open up the legs. Well that worked and I won two money primes in the process, a $50 and $100. The $50 prime came really easy. The second one…wow, I came from like 300m back to nip Curtis Gunn at the line.
Danny Pate and all the boys road really well but also really smart. We didn’t use too much energy because tomorrow will be a very hard day. Mike Lang and Danny Pate were in a break that was about 50seconds at one point during the race, however Health Net and other teams brought it back just in time for a field sprint.
We had the numbers to do a killer lead-out, but I felt confident that if I just followed Gord’s wheel I could take him. Chad Hartley had to do the dirty work by keeping everyone off my wheel going into the final laps…and he did a great job putting his ass on the line for me.
Going into the last two corner Chris Wherry (united pro) once again gave Gord a lead out only this time I was able to hold the wheel and contest the sprint. I gave Gord a gap entering the last corner so I could take a run at him and maybe I gave him a bit too much. As we started to sprint, I made another mistake by taking the inside line where the street was really rough and as I torque on the bike, my bike wheel was going no where but left and right. I moved left with about 50m to go and I took off like a rocket. At this time Gord has his hands up, not knowing I was going about 4-5mph faster than him and I took the win.
Thanks Gord!
posted by Rahsaan Bahati @ 5:55 PM
6 Comments:
At 6:05 PM,
mansur said…
congrats on the win. Keep up the good work. I hope this takes some of the pressure off after yesterday. What are your goals after the gila?
At 7:26 PM,
SLOVER said…
Great job Rahsaan!!!! Way to stick it to Gord. Thanks for making my day!!!!
At 7:52 PM,
Surfsister said…
Oh, hell yeah!!! I check cyclingnews.com several times a day when you're racing. When I pulled up the Gila race page today, I started yelling (and scared Carter). I am so proud of you!!! I knew you could do it, although I wasn't sure you would do it. You let your legs do the talking!
At 1:52 PM,
foongfest said…
Way to go Rahsaan!!! Nice one!
At 10:32 PM,
Jahluv said…
Congratulations brotha on a job well done. The photo of you nipping it at the line on cyclingnews.com is priceless. Keep up the good work...
At 1:51 PM,
Rahsaan Bahati said…
surfsister,
i hope to make you screem more and more this year...lol. How is the little one?
it was a good week for the team and we are looking forward to philly week.
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