Jose gets 4th and 1st Belizean in Cross Country

So after the dust had settled and contrary to my pre-race post, a Mexican rider emerged victorious in the 81st Cross Country Classic. In fact the Mexicans managed 1st and 2nd and ate up close to 35% of the station prizes and primes on the course. After 6 hours and 2 minutes of hard racing, Mexican Carlos Lopez (riding unttached) emerged with the win in solo fashion a minute ahead of country-man Carlos Manuel Hernandez (riding for the Mexican National Selection). Rounding out the top three was Cuban Frank Travieso riding for Team Santino's giving the foreigners the 1, 2, 3 sweep of the podium.

With that faith sealed, the eyes of the nation then came down to who would be the 1st Belizean, a heroic feet in itself given the overwhelming foreign competition in this year's race, and to be outdone was our Team Zamir's very own Jose Choto out-sprinting Team Santino's rider Geovanni "Froggy" Leslie for the forth overall position and capturing the hearts of a nation by also winning the covetted 1st Belizean prize in his attempt to defend the garland.

The race got started shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday morning with 123 riders. About 3 miles in a small breakaway of four riders including one of our protected guys Giovanni Choto (Starz) got clear. Soon after this breakway group ballooned to 12 with our Eric Murphy (Starz) and Roger Troyer (Zamir) going along with the move since it had the presence of several dangerous Mexican and Costa Rican riders and given how the race unflodded last year where an early break stayed out for most of the race, and eventually saw the winner emerge, they opted to follow. The main peleton opted to let the front runners go.

At 30 miles in a Mexican and a Costa Rican got clear of the 12 and ran all the way into Cayo and back to mile 42 before they were caught. In the back the action was relentless and main peleton would eventually catch the 10 riders chasing the 2 foreigners about 2 miles before the San Igancio turn point. With the dangerous group caught it was just a matter of time before the attacks started on the return leg. The heat and wind were definitely factors as slowly but surely the pack got smaller as riders abandoned.

Coming past Belmopan and with about 45 miles to go, one of our two Guatemalans, Luis Santizo (Starz) tried to bridge across to the two front runners. Seeing this failed attempt a small group of 5 gave it a go. Froggy Leslie and Frank Travieso (both Santino's), Carlos Lopez and Carlos Manual Hernandez (both Mexicans) and our Jose Choto managed to catch the two with about 42 miles to go. From there this group worked together to distance themselves from the pack. Three of our guys - Bill Elliston and Roger (from Zamir Cyling) and an toasted Santizo tried to bridge over, and came close but just could not finish the effort.

Our 2nd Guatemalan Carlos Hernandez (Zamir) made a valiant effort to get across the over 2 minute gap to the 5 front runners and give Jose some help in the break and eventually caught them with 20 miles to race. By the time he got there though he too was dead on the bike and when the Mexican Hernandez attacked Carlitos got put out the back and would eventually roll in at the finish under sever cramping in 27th position.

Hernandez would eventually open a lead of a minute on the four remaining riders. Not to be outdone was his country-man Carlos Lopez who attacked with 5 miles remaining and eventually caught up to Hernandez with 2 miles to go to the finish. Hernandez would flat in the last 2 miles and with about a mile to go Lopez rode off down the rode to finish about a minute ahead of Hernandez and claim the 2009 Cross Country title.

Back behind the two Belizeans Leslie and Choto would drop the Cuban Travieso but when the cat and mouse games started in the last 2 km, Travieso caught and left the two Belizeans and rolled in for 3rd in uncontested fashion. After the jocking, Jose jumped first with 300 meters to go and gapped Froggy to easily win the 4th position and claim the much covetted 1st Belizean with Froggy having to settle for a disappointing 5th.

In all the Sugar City Starz / Team Zamir camp managed 4 riders in the top 20 with Giovanni Choto in 8th, Quinton Hamilton (Starz) in 12th, and Bill Elliston (Zamir) in 16th. We also managed to pick up a few station prizes along the way thanks to Jose's presence in the final break. All in all, though it was not an outright win, the team is very happy and content with the results in light of the fact that many of the foreigners who rode this year were Professionals with Cat.1 licenses and were just too much competition fro the Belizeans. Our record in two Cross Country Classics now...1st Belizean...TWICE!!!!

In closing we would like to thank our sponsors Melin Vasquez and Family, Vasquez Trucking, Belize Sugar Industries Ltd, Belize Medical Associates, Triple A Imports and La Popular Bakery.

Below please find links to the final classicification links via the BCA website.
http://www.belizecycling.com/results/43-mexican-carlos-lopez-wins-81st-holy-saturday-cross-country-classic.html?28e5bbf660cb545fc854f5c048c7be7c=d5ac3be423a5b511a87c01ed9aebb293

It's Finally Here...81st Cross Country Classic...GO!!!

All the training, prep racing, 6 - 8 hour Sunday rides, 4:00 a.m. Saturday's to go race in Belize City, this is what it boils down to, Saturday April 11th, 6:00 a.m., 144 miles, the heat...the gusting south-easterly winds...it's shaping up to be yet another history making classic.

Going into the race we already have an idea whose going well for us. Roger and Giovanni have been riding well, with Rog placing 3rd in the last two major classics and Giov winning two races in Guatemala while on a 3 week training camp there with Nery Velasquez (Cafe Queztal). Nery and Luis Santizo arrive later this week and while only Luis will ride for us on Saturday, Nery's presence will be greatly appreciated as he will bring another great cycling mind to the think tank for strategy planning. Also bolstering the squad's efforts will be last year's 4th place finisher Carlos Hernandez, another Guatemalan saddling up for us this year.

Already in town is Bill Elliston who will be riding for Team Zamir. Bill is a former Cross Country Champ (2005) and has been racing at both the elite amateur and professional levels for 20 years. He also coaches and is a student of the sport. Rounding out the foreign support for the race for us will be the Mercinary, Eric Murphy from the Myogenesis.com Cycling Team out of Georgia. E-Murph's been here for two major classics already and should play a key role marking dangerous moves for us during the race.

Of our local guys, Roger, Giovanni, Quinton, Jose, Mateo...all have great chances of winning this event and should be able to use their experience and conditioning to position themselves well when the deck is being shuffled. For anyone whose familiar with this race, it is typically a race that's decided in the last 25 - 30 miles. our strategy will be simple, preserve as many of our guys as possible for the last 30 - 40 miles so that we canhave and maintain a presence in all the decisive moves and then position our protected guys into the winning opportunities.

The competition should be strong. The team to watch will definitely be Santino's who've split their team as well by re-introducing Redbull and bring the likes of Frank Travieso and Yusvany Falcon in for the race. These two will be sure to protect the speedster and reigning Nation Champ Greg Lovell. Additionally, they have the recently crown Belmopan Classic winner Jeovanni Leslie, super srpinter Darnell Barrow, and former SC Starz work horse Berty Brown as options to play.

Benny's too should post additional threats in the likes of young sensation Byron Pope and veteran Jeffery Zelaya, but moreso in the presence of Panamian sprinter Christian McNish and Costa Ricans Nieves Carasco and Pablo Espinoza, as well as the legendary Columbian Carlos Robles.

C-Ray will counter with Brandon Cattouse and will no doubt have the services of the Mexican and Canadian duo of Yapur and Barkhouse who will be coming in as part of the Merida delegation. Former Champ Shane Vasquez (Western Spirits) has been quiet all season, but as been steadily improving in his form and performances since Valentine's and should be right there again. This is his kind of race and he can't be counted out.

Other possible contenders include Chris Harkey who'll be riding again for Acros/Guiness and while many may count him out because of his age, he too as been improving his performances fro a 22nd New Years, to a 6th for Belmopan (3 weeks ago).

The Mexican and Guatemalan contingents will be active and should be out gunning early for the money prizes and not so much for teh overall win. They come strictly to collect. Only time will tell...keep you posted!