A NUMBER of local cyclists are expected to be on the starter’s orders when junior cyclists from the region converge on St. Lucia the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships from July 30 to 31.
This is the 11th edition of the championships as cyclists and officials from host St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Barbados, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Curacao, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands have already indicated they will be participating in the region’s premier showcase of junior cycling talent.
The first day of actual competition will be on July 30 with the girls (15-18) 10 kilometer time trial from 2.00 p.m. At 3:00 p.m. will be the 10 kilometer Individual time Trial Boys (15-16) and at 4:00 p.m. the junior men (17-18) will set off on their 20 kilometer Individual Time Trial. That same evening, the Caribbean Cycling Federation Congress will be held from 7:30 p.m.
Riders will be back early next morning for the 50 kilometer Road race for (15 -18) girls, and at 10:30 a.m. the 62.2 kilometer Road race for boys (15 – 16) will get started. The final event will be a 100 kilometer Road Race for men (17-18) starting at 1:30 p.m.
The Time Trial course will be on the Millennium Highway and the Road Race will be on the Vieux Fort / La Ressource circuit, starting and finishing outside the bus terminal on the Vieux Fort-Laborie Highway.
Meanwhile, at last year’s Caribbean Junior Cycling Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. St. Lucia’s participants Kluivert Mitchel placed 17th in the 10-kilometre juveniles (15 to 16 years old). Jesse Mentor was 18th, and Romueous Noel placed 15th in the juniors (17 to 18 years old) 20km time trial.
Mentor and Mitchel rode the 65km road race for juveniles. Both completed the event, but neither was officially timed, while Noel, along with Andrew Norbert and Dave Charlery, participated in the 97.5km junior road race. Charlery and Noel did not finish. Charlery needed medical attention after two laps and Noel after covering 91km with one lap to go.