“Jawmain” brings garland back home
Good evening I’m James Adderley and we certainly want to welcome you to this serving of Sports Monday. The 73rd Annual Cross-Country Classic fell victim to its most controversial start ever, as a protest almost shut down the Holy Saturday race.
At the heart of the standoff is this pair of riders wearing the Quintana Roo uniforms, whom some say are actually Colombians bearing Mexican passports and were in any case riding for Smiling Meats.
Douglas Lamb, Talking to Cyclists
“All you cyclists who want to support this today, draw to the line now.”
(Crowd cheers as cyclists move to the line)
Douglas Lamb of Santino’s explains.
Douglas Lamb, Santino’s Jamis
“For the two Colombians that we have riding, who come as Mexicans, we want them to come out of the race. If they don’t come out of the race, no cross-country today! If they don’t come out of the race, no cross-country!”
Here is the first shooting of the starting gun-nobody makes a move and we’ll just tune you in to some of the further goings on.
(Crowd and cyclists making a lot of noise.)
With only Albert Castillo of Smiling Meats gone, the rest of the riders hesitate before taking off, and then one by one they begin to do the right thing as the 73rd edition finally gets underway.
This is Albert Castillo picking up his last of four station prizes before being reeled in by the pelathon.
At La Democracia, Samuel Gordon takes that station prize, but would not be heard from again in this race.
At Roaring Creek a three-man breakaway featuring Douglas Lamb, Jeffrey Zelaya and American Frank McKanon, tried to make it stick. However, the Busman Arnold prize sees John Cippola of the U.S. stepping up to take that one.
And then the lead four is joined by the 1999 champ Chris Fredericks. This five would go all the way to San Ignacio with Chris Fredericks taking the halfway prize of fifteen hundred bucks.
The big five couldn’t run away people and finally get gobbled up by the chase pack around mile thirty-seven.
At mile thirty-five the biggest move gets made, Andrew Smiling, Ernest Meighan and the Mexican/Colombian Jose Miguel Robles Lopez, who became the most important impact rider in Holy Saturday’s ride. For the remainder of the race, Lopez would single handedly carry the pace all the way into the Marion Jones Sporting Complex, sweeping most of the station prizes en-route.
So it’s this trio of riders entering the Marion Jones Complex for the big finish. And now all three prepare for the winning lap. The visitor, Jose Lopez shows no inclination to win the big prize, so he backs off the pace.
Ernest Meighan attacks from the outside to take the lead-Andrew Smiling responds, and for a moment, it’s a dead even, until Ernest Meighan makes one final push, which gives him his second cross-country win in five years. A very disappointed Andrew Smiling settles for 2nd and Jose Lopez takes 3rd in uncontested fashion.
This is Miguel Perez, the Guatemalan, who tried to catch the lead trio. However he felled short, but finished unchallenged for 4th place.
Francisco “The Animal” Flores did a good job, but had to settle for 5th place as he rolls in here. Meanwhile, former champ, Big Mike Lewis, out sprints the field to finish 6th.
Ernest Meighan, Winner, Cross Country Cycling Classic
“I’ve been waiting for this race for a long time. Everybody was really disrespecting me because I haven’t won a race for this year, but I made them eat all the small crowns. I ate the big one.”
James Adderley
“Take us through the final moment of that sprint. It started around the last curve, you were the last man to pull the trigger.”
Ernest Meighan
“I realised that Andrew Smiling wanted to get behind me. I realised that his foreigner worked for him and he’s not going to really try and win this race, so I didn’t worry about the foreigner. I knew he was going to bring it hard around the curve for Andrew Smiling because he’s really a wind up sprinter. I’m not really a wind up sprinter, but I was very strong today and I did it.”
Andrew Smiling, 2nd, Cross Country Cycling Classic
“The track was kind of wet, and when I caught him my back wheel started slipping a bit, so I had to whole up a little bit. As you see at the end, he actually fell down. I was kind of afraid and didn’t want to fall down, so didn’t get off my seat and sprint. But no excuse, I beat me.”
Francisco Flores”, 4th, Cross Country Cycling Classic
“All I can say is I tried and Ernest proved to be the better guy today. Congrats to him.”
Turning to the football scene, the BFL playoffs got off over the weekend with all the home teams picking up the W. Kulture Yabra blanked Metro Stars 2-zip at M.C.C. Grounds. Builder’s Hardware Bandits scorched Juventus 1-nil and defending champ Sagitun host Real Verdes 3 to nothing.
Turning to the horseracing scene, we take you inside the Travellers One-Barrel Mile staged at Burrell Boom yesterday. It’s an 8 furlong ride to end the day, but when the dust settles, it’s Little Brit of Banner’s Stables with the “W”, forcing Quadrito of Galvez Stables into 2nd, Buffalo Soldier of Wade Stables 3rd, while Baby Kristie of Swan Stables pulls up 4th.
