Cycling Classic returns to downtown Belize City
The Santino’s Cycling Classic started in 1985. It was a staple sporting event that would motivate families to line up along Albert and Regent Streets to watch amateur and professional riders compete. In recent years, the event was held on Princess Margaret Drive. The last time the event was held downtown was in 1997 and the reason was because of poor street conditions. Since the streets were finally given a proper paving in December of 2008, only twelve years later, Santino along with the Belize Tourism Board, have brought the event back as the BTB Sancas Cycling Classic. Santino told News Five how he expects the event to unfold on Sunday.
Santino Castillo, Organizer, B.T.B. Sancas Cycling Classic
“I decided to bring a race to Albert Street and Regent Streets, to the people as compared to most races that leave Belize City—they see deh when they lef, they see they when deh come back. And so that was the start of the Santino Cycling Classic on Regent and Albert which lasted until 1997 until the streets got so bad that the cyclists said listen, we can’t continue ride out here; we’ll break up our bikes and we’ll crash and get hurt. So we moved it to Princess Margaret Drive, but it never did have the magic that it had on Albert and Regent which is why now that the streets are good, we decided to bring it back. I’m hoping that by Sunday afternoon people will have had their fill of the other events and mosey on over to Albert and Regent Streets where the first event is at one-thirty, Jose—actually a coaster bike race for non-cyclists. You come on your coaster bike; you do wahn three laps—first prize hundred dollars, second prize fifty and third prize twenty dollars. Followed by, I had a female event, but we couldn’t muster enough females to have the event so that had to unfortunately be cancelled. So then, we are going to a junior event which will have thirty-plus juniors which we will be fifteen laps. And the course is we will start in front of Brodies and Scotia Bank and I want to thank both Billy Musa and Pat Andrews for lending me their properties to use—we are starting and finishing the event there. They’ll go around Belize Bank and when they get to Barrow and Williams, they will veer right and they’ll go to Yarborough right in front of the basketball court, turn around come by government house and that will be considered lap one. At two o’clock as I said would be the juniors, three o’clock will be the masters—four-five riders—which includes myself and then the big boys go at four o’clock including some foreigners that have come down for it.”
Castillo says that trophies will be given out to winners. And cash awards will be given out for each lap of the Elite division. Ernest Jawmain won the event three times in the 1990’s.
