Swede continues to lead Tour of Belize
He’s been following the race since last weekend and here’s James Adderley’s latest daily take on the M and M Tour of Belize.
James Adderley, Reporting
Orson Butler works the early morning on the trainer wheels and in fact the only true Belizean team in the 2007 M and M Engineering Tour on day six is Benny’s Megabytes. Hey, good going guys!
The Cable DX Decorabaños team of Guatemala have their own version of the wheels. In fact, you can even do it in twos as demonstrated by the Roaring Creek Cycling Club. Unfortunately, none of these teams have a rider in the top ten of the general classification after five sages of this nine-stage tour, which has covered two hundred and ninety-eight miles going into stage six.
Nevertheless, they’re all priming their legs for the individual time trial on the Burrell Boom Road and the last shall be the first in this time trial.
Master B cyclist George Lovell Senior starts first and he comes in over an hour off the pace.
So let’s get quickly to the power players. The defending champion Marlon Castillo of Santino’s finished eleventh in this stage with a time of 25:49 in the twelve-mile time trial. It’s three seconds off his record-winning stage last year and going into stage seven he’s now 4:40 behind the yellow jersey.
Here’s John Delong of Alliance Environmental posting a time of 25:29 to grab fifth place. He’s now 2:16 behind the leader going into day seven. Keep an eye on this guy.
Todd Hendrickson of Santino’s finished in 25:08 to take fourth place and now finds himself only 1:50 down for day seven.
Grant Potter of Bike America pulled the third best time with his twenty-five minutes flat, but he came into stage six 3:10 out.
Even under the foggy conditions though, we can spot Frank Travieso of Santino’s after he put up the second best time of the morning, 24:35 – and he is now 3:38 behind the pace going into the next stage.
Now can you believe Bjorn Anderson of Comfort Air with yellow jersey since say two is posting right here an incredible time of 23:42—it’s record setting and more importantly he extends his grip on the lead.
Bjorn Anderson, Individual Time Trial Winner
“That was a pretty good ride I think. It felt a little tough because we had a little bit of a head wind coming down, so I wasn’t sure how I did, but then I caught up to the guys in front and came to the finish line with a good time.”
James Adderley
“Is this the best time you’ve done for twelve miles in an individual time trial event?
Bjorn Anderson
“It could be, I’m not quite sure. Maybe I’ve done faster with better conditions. It was a pretty good ride.”
James Adderley
“Is it the easiest stage of the tour for you?”
Bjorn Anderson
“Definitely not. You’re going as hard as you can for twelve miles, so that’s very tough. Some of the flatter stages are a bit easier.”
Kwame Scott, Sports Reporter
“Quinton I must say congratulations, Comfort Air has been shining since Monday, but now your work is cut out. What is plan tomorrow; will you guys get on the front and protect this yellow jersey?”
Quinton Hamilton, Comfort Air
“Well that’s what we’re gonna have to try and do because we have the yellow jersey still at this moment; we have just won the time trial. And tomorrow is not really no kind of dangerous hills that is going to be a threat to us, but we will try to protect him until Sunday and see what our team can do.”
“Actually he is from Europe side and here I know to myself that his power that he has ain’t gonna play no role for him due to the group of cyclists, so many field of cyclists. So I guess tomorrow it’s not going to be too hard for him because with the power he has he could climb and we have sharp, power, steep climbs. It’s not long climbs, so it won’t be a threat for him.”
So we resume the action with stage seven tomorrow, an eighty mile ride that begins in Belize City and ends at Benque Viejo. The yellow jersey belongs to Bjorn Anderson, the Swedish sensation, so we will see you then. I’m James Adderley reporting for News Five.
