Riders set for the 79th Cross Country Classic

A little after dawn on Saturday Belize’s most important annual sporting event will kick off for the seventy-ninth time. James Adderley, who has covered this race for what seems like most of those years, has a preview.

Today is Wednesday the fourth of April 2007, the time is 5:15 a.m. and the early birds are already up stalking their prey on the Western Highway. Their aim is to be as ready as possible to grab the 2007 Cross Country Cycle Classic and these are mostly members of the Megabytes Cycle Team.

1992 champion Big Mike Lewis, accompanied by two pacers, is also up this morning in search of a second Cross Country title.

And a little further down the road we find Mateo Cruz preparing for what he hopes is his first capture of the biggest one.

On the way back, at mile fourteen, they all coalesce into one big unit honing their timing and building their dreams because when they meet again it will be for real.

At the end of the twenty-eight mile ride Mateo Cruz of Santino’s shared his dream with us.

Mateo Cruz, Team Santino’s
“I feel pretty good. I’m very confident after all this training. From November I’ve been training hard, putting in my Wednesday rides. From November I’ve been doing like one hundred every Wednesday and then came the Krem Classic, I did well in that. And then the M & M Tour I did pretty well, I was riding strong then I crashed but then I know that the M & M Tour is a stepping stone to the Cross Country; it’s like a loading phase for me. You load up on miles in that race and then you just maintain. So after that I just maintain my miles and my time on the bike and I came out victorious in the Belmopan Classic and the Masters Cross Country.”

“It’s my time James. The door is half-way open, it’s just for me to step in now and just take what’s for me. I just have to be confident and have my Belizean team, Santino’s Team, ride for me and I should be victorious.”

Speaking of Team Santino’s, it’s been four years since they last won a Cross Country Classic and Santino “The Chief” thinks that drought is about to end.

Santiago Castillo, Owner/Manager, Santino’s
”We’ve prepared well. We’ve put in a good foundation of mileage. The boys are ready and I think many of them are peaking right now.”

“I have ten riders this year. I have two Guatemalans who are complete domestiques riding for the Belizeans. I have three Belizean domestiques namely, Adrian Faux, George Lovell Jr. and the mountain bike sensation Denny Molina, they are all domestiques. I have five men that can win this Cross Country, namely Marlon Castillo, Mateo Cruz, “The Golden One” Earnest Meighan as well as “Froggy” Leslie and Belize’s fastest man Greg Lovell. If any of those five men are in any breakaway I am willing to take a chance on one of those five men.”

Of course arch-rival Matthew Smiling of Acros Smiling Meats had a completely different take.

Matthew Smiling, Manager, Acros Smiling Meats
“We have another strong Belizean based team mainly Charlie Leslie, he’s a masters, also Jim Scott, a masters and Collet Mejia. Those are the three main Belizean cyclists we have. We also have a cyclist that just came out of the junior rankings in the name of Jason Badillo so he is basically for the future. So we will be focusing on the two imports that we are bringing in.”

James Adderley
“Can we have their names if you don’t mind”

Matthew Smiling
“It’s the controversial Ismael Ponce and also Juan Sandoval.”

James Adderley
“Ok, what do you see your chances are going up against former riders who rode for you like Chris Harkey?”

Matthew Smiling
“Nothing because Ponce didn’t show much ninth of March. This is what caused all this controversy so we are confident with just the two.”

James Adderley
“What would be your biggest challenge going in?”

Matthew Smiling
“The race itself. We don’t race against any individual person. We have never done that, we have race against the race, the field; the field is our challenge.”

Now meet Perry Gibson manager of Benny’s Megabytes who intend to be a factor this year.

Perry Gibson, Manager, Benny’s Megabytes
“Basically we have nine riders that we will be entering into this cross Country. We have a mix of youth and experience, older guys. We have, for the youth we have Darnell Barrow who is an up and coming gut. Last year he was junior, this year he has moved up into the senior ranks and since then he has won the AIDS Day Classic, he has come fifth in the Krem Classic, fourth in the Belmopan Classic and in the Tour he was fourth in the stage to Benque so we expect that Darnell will be getting more and more experience and will be one of the guys who could possibly do something special in this Cross Country. Another young hope that we have is Byron Pope who is the double Junior Cross Country Champion. He will be the entering in this Cross Country as well. We have Ian Smith who has been a big name in cycling for some time and Ian is basically working his way back up and he was seventh in last year’s Cross Country and we expect things from him this year as well. Jeffrey Zelaya, Robert Mariano, Orson Butler, John Newport, George Abraham and Elbert Pope, those are basically our nine riders.”

James Adderley
“So what would be the biggest challenge for Benny’s Megabytes this year?”

Perry Gibson
“I think basically the tactics in the race. We have a nine man team and we need to basically cover most of the tactics and be around in the last part of the race where we believe that we would have a chance with two, three guys hopefully to take out the race in the end.”

We did not reach all the teams but here’s a list of those that have registered for this event: Western Spirit, Sagitun, Roaring Creek Cycling Team, BelCal, Belmopan Cycling Team, Comfort Air, Team Typhoon, Kulture Unity/Medina House, M & M Engineering, Northern Poultry, C-Ray Cycling Team, Alliance Environmental and Father & Son.

In the meantime the only active cyclist with two Cross Country titles under his belt is looking for a third in 2007 and you know him as “The Golden One” Earnest Meighan.

Earnest Meighan, Team Santino’s
“James I’ve won it two times already so I wouldn’t count out my third but with my team around me if I don’t win somebody in my team is gonna win. My challenge right now James is usually the foreigners so we don’t know more or less who is the foreigners coming in but if Harkey is gonna be here Harkey is one of the main guys who you should really watch because he is very good. I give him his respect, he is very good.”

Who is this Chris Harkey they keep talking about? Well here he is winning the 2003 title in a three man sprint and here he is taking the 2004 win in uncontested fashion so you know this American is a bad man.

Of course they will all chasing this man – Shane Vasquez of Western Spirit Cayo – who captured his first Cross Country title in a magnificent ride last year that saw him win unchallenged inside the Marion Jones Sporting Complex.

And so people it’s the 2007 edition of a glorious tradition that started in 1928. Who takes it this time around? Stay tuned on Holy Saturday. This is James Adderley reporting for news Five.