By: Jamie Naragon

As previewed on Missing Saddle last week, the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix was held this past weekend.  The continental men’s teams brought their heavy hitters, including Rory Sutherland, Floyd Landis, Tony Cruz, Matt Willson, Freddie Rodriguez, Ivan Dominguez, the winner of the past two years, Rahsaan Bahati.

The men’s race runs 80-minutes, and a quarter of the way through, Adam Livingston (Kahala LaGrange) gained a small gap, but Rock Racing and Kelly Benefits Strategy chased him down.  Once again, a small group was able to break away about half way through the race, this once including “Fast Freddie” and Landis, but it too was soon captured by the peloton.

With just three laps remaining, a crash, including Colavita’s Alejandro Borrajo, threw a wrench in many strategies, but Rock took advantage of the disorganization and began lining up Bahati for the sprint.  Team Type 1 tried to ruin Rock’s plans, but in the end, Bahati was able to claim his third consecutive MBGP title—just one week after being moved back to Rock Racing’s pro roster.   Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita Sutter-Home) claimed second while Team Type 1’s Ken Hanson was able to hold on to third overall.

In the women’s race, fewer of the “big” teams arrived due to the race lacking NRC status.  Nonetheless, the women who competed fought hard, marking each other the entire time.  The winning move came in the final turn when young Coryn Rivera (Proman Hit Squad) flew from 4th to take the win.  What makes this 16-year old’s victory even more stunning was she was riding on junior gearing, so it was a smart and patient attack with strong legs that led to top Malindi Maclean (Jazz Apple) and Catherine Fiedler-Cook (Tommasini).