The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senor Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

TWIN presidents Roy Colebrooke and Barron ‘Turbo’ Musgrove have been steering the Bahamas Cycling Federation for quite a while. But they both admit that they have never seen the sport expand the way that it has right now.

The two orchestrated the successful hosting of the 47th National Cycling Championships over the weekend at the Clifton Heritage Park where there were competitors not only from New Providence, but Grand Bahama and Spanish Wells, Eleuuthera.

The Nationals featured the time trials on Saturday, while the gruelling road race took place on Sunday.

A good cross-section of veterans and up and coming cyclists participated either in both, or in separate events.

Lorin Sawyer from Spanish Wells was crowned the double men’s national champion in both the time trials and road race, while Marla Albury, also from Spanish Wells, repeated as the female time trials champion and new mom Antoniece ‘Lilly’ Simmons emerged as the road race champion.

“I thought we had two days of some very good events,” said Colebrooke, the president of the BCF. “For the first time in a long time, we’ve had a national champion in both the time trials and the road race in the men’s division.

“Lorin has been riding very well for a number of years. I believe if it wasn’t for the pandemic, he would have been riding even better because I believe it hampered his training sessions.”

From the nationals, the federation is now preparing to take a team to the Caribbean Cycling Championships in the Dominican Republic August 11-15 in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

“Lorin Sawyer and Antoniece Simmons represented the Bahamas in 2011 at the Caribbean Cycling XChampionships and performed very well,” Musgrove said. “Lilly got a silver and Lorin rode a phenomenal race.

“They came out here and proved that they are ready to lead the Bahamas charge again. So we are looking forward to taking a very good team to the championships again this year.”

Musgrove, who serves as the secretary general of the federation and the president of the New Province Cycling Association, admitted that the disruption of COVID-19 has intensified their programme.

“Lilly is back and she got on the podium again as the female road race champion and Marla Albury, the wife of our former male champion Chad Albury, won the time trials again,” Musgrove said.

“Lorin Sawyer should be commended for winning both the time trials and the road race. He went out there and he performed exceptionally well. It showed that he took advantage of COVID-19 by preparing himself very well for the Nationals.”

Over the past few months, Musgrove said they’ve seen an increase in their membership with the Bahamas Triathlon Association allowing a number of their competitors to compete.

One of them is 15-year-old Cami Roach, who was the runner-up in both the ladies’ time trials and the road race. She’s the daughter of Cameron Roach, a former swimmer.

Her uncle, Dorian Roach, heads the BTA.

The Roach brothers, by the way, also competed over the weekend with Dorian holding bragging rights over Cameron in the time trials in the senior male category.

“We have people who are just riding their bikes now who want to compete as they see what’s happening,” Musgove said. “So we just want to build better, organised cycling races.

“We have more than 50 cyclists competing in our events so we need to address some things. We need to speak to the government to ensure that when we have events of this magnitude, we can get some protection from the police with road closures to ensure that the cyclists are safe.”

Musgrove said they will once again present their case to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and then to Paul Rolle, the Commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

“Cycling has been moving. We have the participation of a lot of the younger kids and we’re getting families involved and so these types of safety measures will only help the sport to continue to grow.”