Two candidates seek to lead Cycling Association

Staying with the theme of sports, we’ll turn to the always intriguing world of cycling where this week, reports News Five’s Janelle Chanona, the biggest race does not require a bike.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Historically, cycling in Belize has been a source of intense competition, athletic camaraderie, and of course … tremendous controversy. And while support, from both fans and sponsors, has sometimes waned, the tradition has endured.

But tomorrow attention will shift from the action on the asphalt to the marking of ballots at the Belize City Centre as riders, support crews, and officials from across the country head to the polls to elect a leader for the Belize Cycling Association. Incumbent President Melvin Torres is confident his track record and plans for the future will translate into another term in office.

Melvin Torres, President, Belize Cycling Assn
“What should I have done differently? Probably my personality. But what I want to say is our greatest asset this two years would have to be the growth of the sport in terms of the membership. I think that we were struggling with about eighty riders or so for some of years and now we have almost two hundred riders in different grades and classes and I think that was one of our greatest assets. The other point was to try and change the notion of grouping races all in one and try to have different category of races. Then I think we also have to talk about the idea of race radios. It gives us better capability and to keep the race caravan and people who, the staff involved in the race and to try and get them to cooperate. Remember we are coming from almost seventy-eight years of doing things in almost a helter-skelter way and now we are trying to organise it so it takes a little coordination and we are trying to get there.”

Gerald Garbutt, Contesting Elections
“I will not dictate, I will listen to what they all have to say and we’ll come out of a meeting with a consensus.”

But challenger Gerald Garbutt contends Torres’s tactics are unpopular and unfair.

Gerald Garbutt
“My biggest selling point is the prizes that I generate for the cyclists. I have exciting race, lotta prize, lotta station prize and big prize. One time when I was in it, I had bigger prizes than even the Ruta de Maya for the cyclists. A lot of people concerned about that. I say that because I get a lot of feedback that I’m doing too much, I’m giving away too much money to them and different things. But the way I see it, if a cyclist is out there preparing for a race, there is a lot of sacrifice he has to make for his family, for himself. Getting up four o’clock every morning is not easy, rain or shine. Even their lives are at stake with the lotta buses and dump trucks and what not at this time. And the sport itself is a very expensive sport, so sponsors itself doesn’t get a lot from it. One thing I can tell you if I happen to be elected as president, these station prizes that the present administration is taking away percentage from will be cut out immediately, that is out of order in my view.”

“The U.C.I. Janelle we must understand, they give you a guideline, they no give yuh no hard and it doesn’t make out of stone. We are here, we are living in Belize, we have a guideline where we go by it, we don’t have to deal with it–it’s not a writing in stone.”

Melvin Torres
“Not everything that I did was all well and all fair in the eyes of many people, but I can say in terms of cycling and in terms of the development it was important for us to move from that point to this point. Still the work is not done, we need to continue along those lines and speaking for continuity, look on the track record and decide.”

Gerald Garbutt
“We wish that all cyclists, junior, senior, and district cyclists come out and make their voice heard, come out and vote and vote for the best man.”

Voting will take place tomorrow night during the general meeting of the Belize Cycling Association. That meeting is scheduled to begin at seven at the City Centre Conference Room in Belize City. The elections will be supervised by officials from the National Sports Council. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

The presidency of the B.C.A. is for a four-year term.