Athens, Ga. — Rock Racing’s Rahsaan Bahati emerged from a chaotic, crash-filled Athens Twilight Criterium to win the 29th edition of the storied race in front of nearly 50,000 spectators Saturday night.

“It was one of the most exciting, dangerous, fast sprints I’ve done in a long time,” Bahati said. “The crowd here really keep you going. They’re yelling all the time. This is one of the best crits in the nation.”

Despite only having two Rock Racing teammates in the race, Bahati was well-positioned heading into the final sprint that culminated 80 laps of a four-corner, rectangular circuit through Downtown Athens. His burst of speed in the final 100 meters gave him enough time to celebrate with a one-arm, fisted salute ahead of Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light) and Kenneth Hanson (California Giant Berry).

“That race is always super hard – it’s really fast and the field is always good,” Bahati said. “It was a good feeling to come out on top in a race like that. Overall, I felt great. After getting my injury diagnosed, and being able win a race like that, it felt awesome.”

Bahati’s right thigh bone was recently found to have overgrown – a situation that had put him in near constant pain in his upper thigh on each pedal stroke. Now that he knows the root of the problem that has plagued him for the better part of the past three seasons, Bahati hopes the win speeds him on the road to recovery.

In the chaos of several early-race crashes, a breakaway of three slipped off the front 22 laps into the race that included Rock Racing’s Peter Dawson, Ben King (Kelly Benefit Strategies presented by Medifast) and Kyle Wamsley (Colavita-Sutter Home).

The trio was able to build as much as a 25-second lead as it stayed away for more than 40 laps before being reabsorbed.

“Peter did a great job and took the pressure off me by staying out front 75 percent of the race,” Bahati said. “It was a great team win.”

— RRC—