Ariel Rosado goes to Miami

Ariel Rosado is now a household name in the cycling community. The teenager already has several victories under his belt and is always looking for more. But Rosado isn’t only making a name for himself at home. This morning young Ariel traveled to Miami where he will be spending a month in training and then go on to compete in the USCF Junior National Championships in Pennsylvania. For Rosado, the experience is like a dream come true.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting

For some time now, 17-year old Ariel Rosado has dreamt of becoming a professional cyclist. He has worked hard and it’s been paying off. He’s beat out some big names in tough races and in April, proved he could hang with the best of them by becoming the Junior Champion of the Holy Saturday Cross Country Cycling Classic. As luck would have it, Ariel was born in the US making him eligible to compete against some of the best American riders in his age group. And he hopes to stand out.

Ariel Rosado, Junior Cyclists

“Maybe I won’t be worldwide known, but through the US I hope to make my name mean a bit more…more familiar. People know that there is somebody else good like this young man Keith I keep hearing about from the states, extremely good young man. 15-years old and professional teams are waiting for him to come of age so they can jump on him. I hope I can pretty much do the same thing, make professional teams jump on me and then my dreams will start to come true, start to unfold.”

For the next month, Ariel will be in training with Ailton DeSouza, a US Jamis Junior Coach, who specializes in working with younger riders.

Ariel Rosado

“He prefers to work with youths, prefers younger generation cyclists. He works between the ages of 12 to 18. He doesn’t take anybody older, anybody younger. He works with them, molds them into cyclists and a lot of the cyclists that he has molded are becoming well known cyclists, a lot of the better cyclists the US has to offer.”

Ariel admits he has slacking off in his training, but says with the support of his teammates, he hopes to not only make a good impression on Coach DeSouza, but to do well in the races.

Janelle Chanona

“You came off your cross country cycling experience saying you knew you had taken a licking, how do you expect to feel after the races in the US?”

Ariel Rosado

“The cross country, as everybody knows, was a long race, however, in the races up there, they are more strict with their juniors. They don’t allow them to ride distances they shouldn’t ride and I understand that the road race distance is extremely short, like to Hattieville and back, which we are quite used to. So I don’t think I’ll be taking a beating, but maybe the speed–cause I understand they’re very fast–so maybe that’s what will get to me. But the endurance, however, I’m sure I have that over them.”

“I just hope that the country is behind me. I’ll feel much better with their support and I thank everybody for supporting me so far.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

The USCF Junior National Championships will be held in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania from July 5th to the 9th and will include a road race, a criterion and a time trial. Sponsors for Ariel’s trip are Santino’s Jamis, American Airlines and the Radisson Fort George Hotel. Ariel would like to thank his local trainer Albert Jones, his Jamis teammates and his parents for their continued support.

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