Lehigh Valley Classic
Have you ever been hit in the head by a baseball bat? Or how about stumping your toe so bad that it starts to bleed?
Yeah hurts huh…I know, that’s how I felt today in the first race of the Triple Crown. Well not really but boy was it fast and hard.
The competition this year is more stacked than two fat girls hugging. From lap one of the 85 mile race, the pace was “sky high” and guess what…I hung in there. I had very good legs. Over all the climbs I had great position and power.
Every lap, more and more guys were coming off the back because of the high speeds and difficult terrain. Jermiah Wiscovitch looked very well including Freddie and all the other guys. Mike Creed and Doug Ollrenshaw both had bad luck with crashes and flats but overall the team looked very good.
With only 1 lap to go, I found myself still racing but as the speed got higher, I lacked the power to hold my position which I did the entire race. As I’m hurting I’m just thinking about only if I had done some races like this prior to this series I would have no problem.
So I came in with a small group behind the main group and felt content giving the circumstances of having horrific back problems.
During dinner, Victor Pene and Tyler Hamilton were talking to management about me and he said one thing that really pissed me off but also motivated me.
He said…”I don’t know who said Bahati was only a crit racer, sometimes on the climbs he was dropping me and he look really good”. “I thought after 60k he would be out in the bus, but every lap saws him in the front”.
Some of you may say, why did that piss you off…well because that means someone in or on the team has said the only thing I’m good for is a crits and that has prohibited me from making progress in my career this year.
Hands down, if I had California or Georgia in my legs I feel confident that I would have been in the sprint today. No matter how hard and long I train there is no way possible I would be more ready for these races. I HAVE TO RACE TO COMPETE.
So two days off and on to Redding, PA, which is a race that’s a little more difficult for me, do to the mountain they put in the middle.