Cyclists ready for Saturday
With less than three days to go before the 72nd running of the Holy Saturday Cross Country Cycling Race, a last minute controversy has arisen over the entry of foreign riders, who are alleged to be “ringers”: top class professionals disguised as lesser riders. After exercising his due diligence, however, Cycling Association President Gerald Garbutt says all the riders check out just fine. He offered News Five an explanation and preview of things to come.
Gerald Garbutt, President, Belize Cycling Association
“We got a run down on all the foreign riders that are coming into Belize for this cross country. The information we get through UCI is that all the riders who came here already are category one, what we call a senior rider, that’s the name of the category, compared to our category two riders. But we give very very good account of ourselves for category one; it’s a run for the money. So we look at all the resumes on all the riders who have registered so far and all the riders including from all the different teams, like Santino’s team, Bel-Chi Uprising, Sunflower team, Smiling’s Team, all of them are category one. So we had made a decision that if we allowed one to ride we had to allow all to ride. So all the category one riders who have registered with us so far will ride.”
Stewart Krohn
“In the long term, do you think there need to be any changes made to the rules concerning foreign riders, to give the Belize fellows a little better chance?”
Gerald Garbutt
“Well Stewart, I feel personally that down the road we should have a race strictly for the Belizean. And we should have a major race which is an open race. We’re not concerned that if we should give the Belizean an opportunity to win the race or the foreigners to win the race. I believe that the Belizean riders are capable enough to win the race but the problem is that the have to organise themselves and plan their strategy. I think that is their biggest problem.”
Stewart Krohn
“Give us a run down of what you think is going to happen in Saturday’s race.”
Gerald Garbutt
“I believe that seeing how things are going now on the road and everything, the working out, Belize stand a very, very good chance. The situation with the foreign riders is because most of the time the teams that bring in the foreign riders want the Belizeans to riders for the foreign riders, instead of the foreign riders ride for the Belizeans. And the game plan out there is left for the team captain and sponsor as to how they will execute their strategy.”
“I think Bel-Chi Uprising have a very good chance, they have a lot of excellent riders, we talk Belizean riders, that any given chance, they can make it quite easily at the tape. They have guys like Quinton Hamilton, Jermaine, they have guys that they brought in from Guatemala and Costa Rica and these guys are category one too that they brought in. They are new guys; some of them are new guys, which we didn’t see ride yet. We also have from Sunflower, a new team that is out, supported by a young Belizean, who have Charlie Lewis who is doing very well, an ex-champion, he is riding pretty good now. And at Santino you have the young Rosado, Ariel Rosado. We also have Douglas Lamb, we have Mateo Cruz. These Belizean riders at any given time can make the purse.”
In a last minute move that will cause some additional excitement, the Ministry of Education and Sports has come up with a $10,000 donation to the association. This money covers the first prize, believed to be $5,000, as well as prizes for other top finishers. The business community is asked to similarly open its wallet.