Riders ready for Female Cross Country Classic

What do most women want for Mother’s Day? Flowers? A sentimental card? Breakfast in bed? Sounds good, but so does some nice prize money. But just how many Belizean women are willing to ride all the way from San Ignacio to Belize City to get it? We’ll let Patrick Jones tell you.

Patrick Jones, Reporting
After months of practice and preparation, over a dozen of Belize?s best women cyclists are ready to burn some serious rubber on the Western Highway in search of the cross country championship.

Fiona Humes Gonzalez, Team Santino?s
?On Sunday I plan to go out there, ride a hard race, and try to come to town alone.?

Patrick Jones
?Now try to come to town alone, is there a particular strategy you will use? Will you start hard and keep up the pace or will you start slow and then pick up the pace??

Fiona Humes Gonzalez
?Well I can?t decide that yet because I don?t know what kind of breeze we will be having. I just have to watch the field and then react after that.?

Patrick Jones
?Watching the field, is there a particular ride that you have your eyes on that you are saying this is the woman I have to keep in my sights??

Fiona Humes Gonzalez
?No, they are all very good.?

The field of athletes is a virtual who?s who on the local cycling scene, with at least two past champs, several who have been perennial challengers and a couple who are just getting their feet wet.

Marinett Flowers, Cyclist
?The races this year have really improved, so I think it will be a very challenging and enjoyable race.?

Seventy-two hours before the start, all the athletes, including veterans Anamarie Bennett of Guinness Sea Hawks and Fiona Humes Gonzales of team Santino?s say they are ready for the big race.

Anamarie Bennett, Guinness Seahawks
?I consider everybody out there right now in excellent condition. I won?t take my eyes off anybody and I?m not afraid of anyone. So no, I don?t have anybody that I am afraid of.?

Esperanza Leal, Cyclist
?It?s my first race, actually not my first race, but my first cross country so I?m a little shaky. I don?t know how I?m going to feel that day, but once I am energetic, I guess they expect some little attacks. I will be having a coach for that day, so usually I attack a lot when race begins, so they might slow me down, but it all depends how I feel that morning.?

Patrick Jones
?It?s your first cross country and you are among greats like Marinett, Anamarie, Fiona, does that make you a little bit nervous??

Esperanza Leal
?No, it doesn?t make me nervous because anything could happen out there. The best could be the best, but spills could happen and it could be your first one, but you could be the lucky one to at the ending have enough strength to get there.?

Sheena Castillo, Cyclist
?Well this year I had a little bit of bad luck with health problems and stuff like that, so I started out a bit late but I think I?m ready.?

Patrick Jones
?What is the hardest part of the race??

Sheena Castillo
?For me, because I haven?t practiced much in the hills, that will be my most difficult part. But I usually pace myself through it and stick right there with the group.?

Marinett Flowers
?I put a lot. I dedicate myself a lot and go out and train very hard. So I hope when that day comes my body reacts and give me all the energy I put in that I can put out back.?

These cycling moms have been pounding the pavement for months. It?s a challenge, not only to pedal a bicycle for seventy-two miles, but also to balance home and family life. But these women on wheels say they wouldn?t change a thing.

Anamarie Bennett
?It?s a pity you weren?t out there for the road championship that we started at the Blue Hole. We had hills through the Hummingbird Highway, and those for me they weren?t a challenge. If I was not able to climb them as well as I did, I would have felt that something was wrong that day.?

Patrick Jones
Anamarie, what does it take for a woman to pedal a bicycle from San Ignacio to Belize City?

Anamarie Bennett
?Dedication, and sometimes I think we are kind of crazy to be out there. It means getting up at 4 o?clock in the morning and putting in some intense rides, workouts that take you for four hours or more. It?s really demanding because you have a full time job. You have to get to bed early, but it gives you a sense of accomplishment and you feel energized to take you through the rest of the day.?

Marinett Flowers
?It takes dedication. It takes hard work, and great mind, encouragement.?

Patrick Jones
?Now the prizes that are offered in the cross country, do they help or are they more of a hindrance to women riding the cross country??

Marinett Flowers
?Well it helps a lot for us, but we women who are out here are the ones that like our bikes and dedicate ourselves to bike because then there is not much we do. We are not someone that loves to party, so what we do we dedicate ourselves on our bicycle. That is my party you know and for most of the girls I don?t see them as party girls, so what they do they love their bike. And when you get up every morning it?s like when we are going to the dance. Just to get up and ride our bike and we feel very happy.?

Anamarie Bennett
?A lot and sometimes I wonder if it?s not too much. Because Matthew Smiling is my coach and he is an excellent coach. He puts me through many, many tests and the training is very intensive.?

And with all the training, the cost of equipment and nutritional supplements, is it worth the while, at the end of the day when the champion?s hands are raised in victory?

Sheena Castillo
?I?m out there to compete against everyone. And once I feel good, Sheena will be there.?

Fiona Humes Gonzalez
?What we ride is only half the distance of what the males ride. And I think we have gotten, they have the finish prizes that are very attractive. And yesterday the girls were on Love FM and they got a lot of prize. I think it?s good because plenty of us go out there for the fun of it, but when you compete and you get prizes it?s encouraging.?

Anamarie Bennett
?Of course, I can?t tell you anything much because I will be letting the game plan out. But I expect it to be an exiting race, not only coming for me, but all the other competitors. I?d just like to ask everybody, those in San Ignacio to be at the start to give us encouragement, those along the highway to be out there to cheer us on, and in the city, line the streets, be at the Marion Jones Sporting Complex as they have done for the male cross country. Let us make it a big event for females.?

Patrick Jones, for News Five.

The Female Cross Country Cycling Classic ends at the Marion Jones Sporting Complex in Belize City. Spectators are encouraged to come on out and welcome the women home.