The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Although the competition was of a much higher level than they experience here, coach Barron ‘Turbo’ Musgrove said Team Bahamas performed as best as they could in the Viva Cycling and Bahamas Cycling Federation’s joint hosting of the first Bahamas Invitational Cycling Championships.

The two-day event was held over the weekend around the western end of the island with Team Bahamas matched against teams from the United States of America and Colombia.

“Based on the way we’ve been training, I think we did reasonably well,” Musgrove said. “The competition was definitely at a high level and this is something that we normally encounter when we travel and face at the major international competitions. It was somewhat different in that we don’t normally face this type of competition on our home turf.

“We performed at the level that we are currently at. We were quite competitive. We may not have been in the kind of shape that we needed to be to win it overall, but we did put up a very good fight. From the race, we have taken a lot of things to work on, so it was a tremendous experience for the guys and we intend to build on the experience and the competition.”

As a team, Musgrove said he would like to see the federation and Viva Cycling bring in more competition on a regular basis in the Bahamas, which will help the national teams and even raise the level of the local cyclists in the country.

Michael Hernandez, of the Hot Tubes USA, was the winner of the under-18 age group. He got second in the time trials and was second in the 48-mile circuit race. Hernandez came back to place second in the 68-mile road race. The top Bahamian was Jave Russell who placed eighth.

Camilo Amaya, of the Risaltex Columbia, was the under-23 champion after he took the time trial, placed second in the 48-mile circuit race and returned to win the 68-mile road race. His only loss came at the expenses of Anthony ‘Biggie’ Colebrooke in the 48-mile road race. Colebrooke got second in both the time trials and the 48-mile circuit race for second overall.

Hernandez was also selected as the most aggressive cyclist, while Roy Colebrooke Jr was the best Bahamian cyclist.

Musgrove, who serves as the president of the New Providence Cycling Association, said the event was a tremendous success and he commended VIVA Cycling, the Bahamas Cycling Federation, Cycles Unlimited and all of the sponsors and the Royal Bahamas Police Force, in addition to the spectators who showed up to lend their support.

“The cyclists who came in were quite amazed by the organisation of the event,” Musgrove said. “They told us they never experienced this type of support by all involved. They say they never get this type of operation at their event and they hope that they can come back and compete here again.”

Musgrove said they will be looking at putting on another event before the year is over and their season is shut down by the end of November.

“We are going to look at the possibility of bringing the cyclists back to host a training camp here for a week so that we can learn from the international cyclists,” Musgrove said. “So if we don’t put on another event, we would like to invite the countries to come down for a training camp where they can interact with the local cyclists.

“Next year, we stage the three big tours - the Tour de Grand Bahama, which is normally in February, then the federation stages its National Cycling Championships in New Providence in July and the New Providence Cycling Association stages their series of races, so hopefully we can get them to come down for one of those events and add an international flavour.”