Record field to face starter Saturday morning
DEFENDING champion Yosmani Pol along with his Team Coco teammates, Iván Domínguez, Frank Travieso and David Culli, will be among a record-breaking field of over 90 cyclists who will face the starter’s orders Saturday morning for the first leg of the 30th Annual National Sports Commission (NSC) Independence three-stage cycle road race. Pol won last year’s event in a time of 6h.39mins:34secs, creating history in the process, as he became the first non-national to do so, but with the number of cyclists who have shown interest for this year’s event, he can surely expect a stern test if he intends to repeat as champion.
Like Pol, Travieso also created history in 2010 when he won the third annual Ministry of Health/Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport annual five-stage ‘Ride for Life’ event, after the first two were won by Alonso Greaves and Junior Niles in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
Domínguez who is also known as ‘The Cuban Missile’, was born in Havana, Cuba on May 28 1976, and defected to the United States of America in 1998, acquiring citizenship for his new country one year later.
He road for the Franco MRI Racing Team and was a Pan American gold medallist in 1997, but what he would be remembered for in the cycling fraternity to date is his shocking win in the seventh stage of the 2007 Tour of California, where he outsprinted his rivals including Thor Hushovd, while still being an unknown in the cycling world.
Such a victory earned him his nickname and this year the local cycling fraternity will have the opportunity to see him in action against some of our very own sprinters such as Alonso Greaves, Geron Williams, Warren ‘40’ McKay and to an extent Anguillan-based Guyanese Godfrey Pollydore, as he is a member of Team Coco.
It was the same Team Coco who showed their local counterparts, what team work can do as they rode a tactical five-stage race two years ago, ensuring Travieso kept the lead to eventually be crowned the winner, and how they perform this year is left to be seen, especially with Pol being the defending champion.
Other cyclists of the calibre of the vast-improving Raynauth Jeffrey, Robin Persaud, Albert Philander, Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams, Junior Niles, Ian ‘Dumb Boy’ Jackson, Walter Grant-Stuart, Orville Hinds and Paul De Nobrega will be looking to leave their mark on this year’s event.
There is also Guy Costa, Phillip Clarke, Marloe Rodman and Marc Ogiste from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados’ Jamal Eastman and Darren Matthews, along with Scott Savory and Gerald Yates from the USA, who have all registered to compete, along with cyclists from Suriname.
Two stages will be held on Saturday, with the first pedalling off from Corriverton Police Station at 07:30hrs and proceeding to Alexander Street in New Amsterdam, covering a distance of 46.6 miles (75km).
The second will pedal off at 14:00hrs the same day, this time from Rosignol Stelling and proceed to Carifesta Avenue for a distance of 60.4miles (97.1km) while the third and final stage takes place the following day from Kara Kara in Linden to Homestretch Avenue, a distance of 64.5miles (103.3km).
All told, the cyclists would have covered a distance of 171.5 miles (274.3km) over the two days, where the fittest of cyclists would have displayed stamina, grit and determination to conclude the journey. The presentation ceremony will take place shortly after at a venue to be named.
Registration for the event closed off on Tuesday and all cyclists are requested to wear their club jerseys, numbers issued before and licence before the start of the event. Failure to do so would see the defaulting cyclist being unable to start the event.
Transportation will leave the NSC Office in Middle Street, North Cummingsburg at 12:00hrs tomorrow with cyclists and officials, for Springland Corentyne, following some brief remarks from Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony and Director of Sport Neil Kumar.