Monkey Off The Back
I finally did it! Sigh of relief from my voice.
I don't recall having so much pressure for one race. Not only did I get it from the team, I got it from friends, fans and people who I didn't even know by first name. But I appreciate them as well.
Saturday night I went to the Bike film festival that was being held in Hollywood and I watched a documentary named Ayamye. Learn more about the film here
http://www.ayamye.org/But the film gave me a better appreciation for life, family, the material things I have and what I have to be grateful for. These people in Ghana have the same enthusiasm to getting a used bike as we go when we buy a new car. And this would play a role in my race on Sunday
But back to the race, from lap two I felt great and I knew something good could happen if I had no mishaps.
Every single guy on the team did his job and it really made life easy for me to deliver the win for Rock Racing.
With 5 laps to go, Toyota took over with Ivan Dominguez on the tail end. My team set up shop right behind Toyota United which turned out to be a really difficult job for the boys but they did a fantastic job keeping things together. Each lap we would have it together and the next we were getting swarmed. Going in to the bell lap, again I lost LeoGrande's wheel but at the top of the course I found him and I didn’t let go. With 600m to go, Ricardo Escuela (Successful Living Presented by Parkpre) and I got in to a competitive fight for Hilton Clarke wheel (Navigators Insurance) which I lost and had to make a bold move and squeeze my teammate Jeremiah, nearly crashing both of us. Now Im back to Ricardo wheel and I made the jump to the corner over taking Ricardo and Hilton setting up right behind Ivan who was being led by his teammate Henk Vogel's.
After coming out of the turn third, Henk was 4-5 bike lengths in front of us, but coming back quickly Henk turn around and saw Ivan and I racing towards him and what they tried to do was box me in. If Ivan would have beat me to Henks wheel, Ivan wins the race, however I beat him to the punch and slipped between the two of them to take the W.
Many thanks to family and friends for showing up to support. I saw friends that were very instrumental in my development as a bike race from the early 90's there at the race supporting and of course, Rock Racing. Once again huge win from the team, I really could not have done it without those guys. It was nice to see that team effort by every single guy.
Cheers and check out my photo gallery from the race.