By Emmerson Campbell
This year’s sixth Annual ‘Ride for Life’ 226-mile five-stage cycle road race which is set to pedal off in the first week of October is gearing up to be better than last year’s event, according to Director of Sport Neil Kumar and National Cycling Coach Hassan Mohamed.
“We are definitely putting a lot of effort into this year’s event. We will be definitely be making it more attractive, we want to attract more foreign teams and local cyclists and we will work to make this year’s event bigger and better than 2011,” Kumar said during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport Thursday.
He continued: “We will also be putting together two teams, a junior and a senior team, because road racing is a team sport and we cannot have foreign riders coming here and winning this event.”
Since London Olympics hopeful Geron Williams won the third Tour de Guyana in 2009, a local rider has not pedaled off with the winner’s trophy.
Last year’s event was won by Michael Larsen of Denmark while Antonio Quintero of Miami, Florida’s Team CoCo’s rode off with the 2010’s winning spoils of US$1,000.
Mohamed said that 81 riders faced the starter’s pistol last year and this year the event is scheduled to attract in excess of 100 participants.
Team Guyana
The national cycling coach and coach-of-the-year, who echoed the Director of Sport’s sentiments, was adamant that team riding was necessary for the locals to succeed.
“We are definitely going to get a team this year, in fact two teams – the juniors and the seniors.
These riders have the ability to compete with the foreigners, they train hard and they have the talent, it’s just that some of our cyclists need to understand that victory in some instances, comes through team work -they have to learn to ride as a unit,” Mohamed stressed.
The veteran coach also earmarked some cyclists who will be expected to make the two teams.
Mohamed said the senior team will most likely feature Williams, inaugural ‘Ride for Life’ winner Alonzo Greaves, Robin Persaud, Warren ‘40’ McKay and national Road Race champion Orville Hinds.
Reigning junior Road Race champion 18 year-old Raynauth Jeffrey, last year’s junior Road Race winner Paul DeNobrega, 15-year old Raul Leal and Lindener Michael Anthony will most likely be in the junior team.
Encampment
When asked if the teams will be encamped in order to gel and train together, Mohamed noted that a case like that would be up to the Guyana Cycling Federation’s (GCF) budget.
During an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport in May this year, after the 30th annual three-stage event, David Cueli Santos of Team CoCo (Team CoCo riders occupied five of the top six positions including the winner Ivan Dominguez) spoke about team racing and its successes.
The 18-year-old stated that there are certain basic principles of team racing.
Said Santos: “The first step to riding as a team is finding your strongest rider and working for him, you have to put it all on the line and trust in him to get the job done.”
In road races, there are riders known traditionally as domestiques (French for ‘servant’) who will sacrifice individual performance to help a designated teammate. Santos said further: “When you ride as a team you win the race and you get your name out there, as long as the team wins everyone wins. If one of the local riders wins, it wouldn’t be a victory just for them but it would be a victory for their team and the country (Guyana), you are getting the team’s name out there and eventually the guys that are working will get their chances to win somewhere else if they all ride together – if one guy wins and he is from Guyana then the country wins as does that rider,” Santos emphasized.
Strong riders in Guyana
Santos who has been riding for CoCo’s since he was 15- years-old stated that there are very strong riders in Guyana, but their success is only guaranteed if they race as a team.
“They are very strong riders they just need to ride as a team, I don’t know their names but a lot of them impressed me – I just don’t know their names,” said Santos.
The annual event which is sponsored by the Ministry of Health’s National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS), the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Guyana Cycling Federation lasts four days and takes the cyclists through all three of the counties.
The top 10 riders will each receive lucrative cash prizes and trophies.
