Thursday, December 13, 2007

Knapp Overcomes Poor Starting Spot

Fourteen-year-old Jeff Bahnson (C2S – Henry’s) lit a pace hot enough to worry – or at least confuse – some of the more experienced racers in the field of the first men’s race of the event. Bahnson hauled the field around for two laps until fatigue started to take prisoners. Ryan Knapp of Columbus, Ind., (BikeReg.com), whose starting position at the back put him at a disadvantage for a podium finish, succeeded in steadily moving up until he was in reach of the lead.

“I wasn’t even sure if I was coming out here so I registered about two weeks ago and ended up in the second-to-the-last starting row,” Knapp said. “The long road section gave us a chance to kind of spread it out and move up before it got into the single-track. There was that young 14-year-old kid and he was leading for a good while. Luckily, a couple people had some bobbles, which kind of brought it back together, and I was able to keep it upright for the last two or three laps.”

Had 23-year-old Knapp decided to sit this one out today, the win might have gone to a local racer, Adam Lang (Team X Cycling) from Olathe, Kan., who came in 42 seconds after Knapp.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

since he didn't sit it out though he managed to steal the win. great job by the uci licensed a racer to take the win in the B race!

Matt said...

I love how instead of talking about people who actually finished the race most of the post is about the 14 yr old kid that was flying out there. I'll remind you he didn't finish the race, but did win his junior race the next day. Great job to him and everyone who is in the non-existant podium photo of the b race.