Murietta, Calif. – Rock Racing’s Rashaan Bahati placed second in Sunday’s road race to earn third place overall at the Tour de Murrieta.

Bahati, a seven-time national champion, led four riders from Rock Racing in the top 20 of the two-day, two-stage, omnium-format race. Kayle Leogrande was seventh, Rudy Napolitano placed 17th and Kevin Kline finished 20th.

“The whole Rock Racing team was active from beginning to end,” Rock Racing Director Sportif Mariano Friedick said. “We raced aggressively, covering moves, bridging across to breakaways and being in every move possible.”
The aggressive approach resulted in four Rock Racing riders integrating themselves into a breakaway halfway through Saturday’s 90-minute CA Pools and Spas Grand Prix criterium. Unfortunately, a crash with three laps to go doomed any hopes for a leadout. Still, Bahati managed sixth place, while Leogrande was eighth, Napolitano 13th and Kline 15th.

In Sunday’s 60-mile road race, Rock Racing was again well-represented (with Bahati, Kline, Leogrande and David Clinger) in a 25-man breakaway with 18 miles to go.

“We decided to keep it together since we had the fastest guy in the group in Bahati,” Friedick said.

But with a little more than a mile to go, Karl Bordine (Team 5 Star Fish) attacked and quickly gained a 10-second gap.

“Bahati reacted to the attack but sat up thinking that would get the rest of the group to react,” Friedick said.

However, only a couple of Bahati’s breakaway companions were interested in the chase while his Rock Racing teammates were already running on empty from driving the break. The result saw Bordine maintain his gap for the solo win, while Bahati won the field sprint five seconds later to climb onto the podium in the final overall standings.

– RRC –