Historic Athens Twilight and Roswell Criteriums

I'm not usually one to blog about races but the team has requested I share our southeastern experiences with you all. This post can also be found on www.bahatiracing.com. Here we go.

After only two days of racing at USA Crit Series Speed Week the squad of the OUCH-Bahati Foundation has quickly found out that a productive chemistry is evident.

Saturday, April 24th saw six OUCH-BFPCT riders (Bahati, Clarke, Lea, Rockmore, Falcon, and Mann) line up at the Terrapin Twilight in Athens, GA. The theme of the day amongst all the teams was the weather radar screen on everybody’s smart phones, but as hard as we tried, praying to the weather Gods was no use. From start to finish under patchy city street lighting, the roads were flooded with rain. Starting with about 150 riders, the field quickly whittled into half and by the midpoint of the race a veteran’s whit and tact helped Hilton Clarke find his way in the breakaway of the night. Nearly lapping the field, the break had plenty of time in the finale to attack and counter-attack, everybody trying to make a victorious charge to the finish line. In the end, Karl Menzies of United Healthcare p/b Maxxis took the victory with Alessandro Bazzana of Fly V Australia on his wheel. Although charging hard to catch Menzies and Bazzana, Clarke rolled in for third, solidifying his position on the podium.

The next day, Sunday, April 25th, was the polar opposite…at least in terms of weather in Roswell, GA. Prior to the Historic Roswell Criterium, Rahsaan did his due diligence escorting the young neophyte bike racers around the course during the youth races wearing the Bahati Foundation jacket. Shortly afterwards, the Pro racers were scurrying to the line bumping elbows fighting for the best spot knowing position before a top-level speedy criterium is crucial to conserving energy and finding success. The race started off at a pretty quick pace as guys tried to get into a breakaway, but no matter how hard the peloton threw stones to get the break established, with OUCH-Bahati Foundation’s Lea in the most opportunistic move, nothing stayed away until the end. With a little help from Mann, the final break was reeled in and Clarke and Bahati were positioned near the front. Although both were on good form and arguably the fastest men in the peloton, for any competitor positioning in the last couple laps was key, and being 6 inches in the wrong direction can mean running 1st or 10th. In this instance, Clarke and Bahati were 4th and 9th, respectively, behind Team Type 1’s winner, Ken Hanson.

The coming days will see the OUCH-Bahati Foundation head to Beaufort, SC and then to Walterboro, SC for the continuation of the USA Crits Series Speed Week. Learning and growing from the first couple races with this group has been paramount and will no doubt lead to the top step on the podium. More to come…

Sunny regards from the southeast,
Phillip Mann