Defending champ disqualified from stage 2 of tour
Stages two and three of the M&M Tour of Belize were held today and—for Belizeans—things took a negative turn. James Adderley has the story.
James Adderley, Reporting
Sugar City O.W. looked real sweet this morning for the start of stage two of the M&M Tour of Belize, a sixty-six mile ride that would culminate in front of Leslie’s Imports on the Western Highway. The best Belizean finisher coming in, Jose Choto, three minutes, ten seconds behind, the yellow shirt in Carlos Oyarzun is resplendent in blue while the best under twenty-three rider Luciano Santos of Santino’s sports the bright red jersey. And the mighty journey begins from Shell One Stop O.W. with the lead out. At the Crooked Tree junction, a four-man unit led by Mateo Cruz is in command of the pace but Mateo has to give way to Brian Husen of the Honduras/Nicaragua Cycling Club who beats Cable DX’s Manuel Rodas for that sprint points. As the main pelathon surges behind them, we get a view of the occupational hazards that occur in cycling and we’re thankful that this spill would not exact any critical toll on either man or machine. Nevertheless, the lead finds Mateo Cruz teaming up with Aspel Rodas to run pass the Maypen cut off and here they are screeching into the Boom road. The lead duo is joined by Jeffrey Zelaya and Cable DX’s Manuel Rodas making a foursome. Jeffrey Zelaya realises there’s nothing to be had so he streaks on alone. And here he comes hugging the Hattieville round-a-bout alone with fourteen miles to the finish line. With a pelaton this deep, a move like this could be construed as suicidal and the chase is on. As expected, Zelaya is engulfed around mile eleven and we have a new configuration in the ballgame. This four man group that includes Roger Troyer, Armando Orellano, Brian Foote, and Chad Beyer try to make a run around mile eight and a half but it is short lived.
Jeovanni “Froggy” Leslie is the next rider to bust a move on a solo flight and again he gets consumed by the hungry chase pack. Folks turning the curve to the finish line in front of Leslie’s Imports, is the threesome who successfully broke out of the pack. On the outside Marlon Castillo of Santino’s, Bjorn Selander of the United States National Team is in the middle and Manuel Rodas of Cable DX, Guatemala grabs the inside lane. The defending champ Marlon Castillo turns on the after-burners to capture first place, the American Selander takes second and the Guatemalan Rodas pulls up third. In the meantime the field sprint which comes in twenty seconds later provides a logistical nightmare for the race directors who would have to huddle around the video tape to issue out positions and we haven’t as yet received those results. We caught up with Marlon Castillo who came in thirteen minutes behind the yellow jersey.
Marlon Castillo, Team Santino’s
“I feel so happy right now, winning this stage. It means a lot to me right now so…”
But hold on a Belizeans, we do have some controversy and it will break Castillo’s heart on this Valentine’s Day.
Santino Castillo, Owner/Manager, Team Santino’s
“I was just informed that Marlon has been disqualified. As you know, he won the stage out right in a win and taking first place in this stage two but they disqualified him because he changed bikes.”
James Adderley
“Is that a part of the U.C.I. regulations? Were the rules broken?”
Santino Castillo
“James, obviously they disqualified him, the rules were broken. I didn’t know that you can’t change bikes, honestly. I didn’t know. You can’t borrow nobody’s bike. His bike has number one on it and he has to finish on number one bike. I guess the only other bike he could finish on if that had crashed was a spear bike but you can’t finish on another rider’s number. Truth of the matter is that when was begging for the bike, Jermaine—he was begging Jermaine and Jermaine tell ah no I can’t lend you mi bike, change the wheel. Marlon insisted no I want your bike. Jermaine and Marlon, being the friends they are—very close hangout partners—Jermaine sacrificed, ih seh alright yo bother me, bother me, tek the bike. But we felt that if at the most it would have been a penalty, a fine so to speak. We didn’t know it meant disqualification.”
Well folks, the first shall be the last and you can bet your bottom dollar Marlon Castillo will not win his third M&M Tour, at least not this year. So now meet the official winner who we spoke to before the judges disqualified Marlon Castillo, Bjorn Selander of the United States National under twenty-three Team.
Bjorn Selander, U.S.A. National Team
“I don’t know if we made really an alliance. He kinda sat on from like a little further than one—he sat on the back more than one k out and I knew he was resting for the finish but the group was also coming pretty fast behind us so I didn’t want to take any chances. So I just kept going. I use this race for training too so I wanna go as hard as I can and get good training out of this race and it ended up pretty well.”
Selander wins the stage wins the stage, Carlos Oyarzun of Tecos remains with the yellow jersey. Luciano Santos captures the best under twenty-three performance and the sprinter’s green and of course, Jose Choto remains with the blue jersey for the best Belizean in the hunt.
Jose Choto, Team Tequila Afamado
“I da the best Belizean because yesterday I get wah big lead and today I finish almost together with everybody so we still happy that we di defend the jersey and we fight fi it in the end because at least we want finish with something.
Meanwhile stage three was run on the Boom circuit late this evening, a Team Time Trial event featuring a twenty-five mile package. Unofficial reports getting to us indicate that Team U.S.A. won it in a total time of fifty-one minutes, sixteen point nine four seconds. Team Tecos is second with fifty-one, twenty-four point six four; Herring Gas Cycling Team registered fifty-one, forty five point seven nine; Santino’s fifty-two, ought seven point eight one; and Calyon Pro Cycling rounds out the top five with fifty-three minutes, twenty-one point eight two seconds.
Step four comes up tomorrow featuring an eighty mile ride from Belize City to Benque Viejo and we promise to have the general classification by our next broadcast. Bear with us and join us at that time. I’m James Adderley reporting for News Five.
James will be back tomorrow with another update.
