Je­lani Beck­les

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Ch­agua­nas is fa­mous for pro­duc­ing nu­mer­ous T&T and West In­dies crick­eters, but a young man by the name of Tyler Cole is putting the school on the map in an­oth­er sport.

For­mer Pre­sen­ta­tion stu­dents Ravi Ram­paul and Adri­an Barath have both worn T&T and West In­dies colours, while for­mer West In­dies Un­der-19 play­er Bryan Charles and Varindra Ja­grup, who cap­tained the na­tion­al U-19 crick­et team ear­li­er this year, al­so walked the halls of 'Pres.'

But Cole, who is still weeks shy of his 16th birth­day, is mak­ing a name for him­self in the sport of cy­cling. Most re­cent­ly, Cole won the di­vi­sion two over­all ti­tle at the To­ba­go In­ter­na­tion­al Cy­cling Clas­sic which took place from Sep­tem­ber 29�Oc­to­ber 4. Pri­or to his suc­cess in To­ba­go, Cole won two gold medals for T&T at the Ju­nior Caribbean Road Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships in Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic back in Au­gust. Cole, who trains with the Rigtech Son­ics Cy­cling Club, won gold in the ju­ve­nile men's road race and the ju­ve­nile men's time tri­al. Cole said his achieve­ments at the Caribbean Cham­pi­onships meant more to him.

"I'm more proud of win­ning Caribbean Cham­pi­onships, be­cause it was an event I went to last year and I re­al­ly want­ed to bet­ter my per­for­mance. So from since then I trained re­al­ly hard for a long time in prepa­ra­tion for it, so to go and win both events was a re­al­ly big ac­com­plish­ment for me." At the 2014 Ju­nior Caribbean Road Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships, Cole won gold in the ju­ve­nile road race and bronze in the in­di­vid­ual time tri­al.

Cole likes to bat­tle against the clock in the road in­di­vid­ual time tri­al. "I think my favourite event would have to be the road in­di­vid­ual time tri­al, main­ly be­cause it is a very gru­el­ing event. But I re­al­ly like the chal­lenge, and it al­so gives the cy­clist the chance to re­al­ly put out every­thing to show who re­al­ly is the best as there is noth­ing more than just the cy­clist, the bike and the clock that you're try­ing to beat."

The teenag­er has set him­self goals for 2016, which in­cludes com­pet­ing at the Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onships again. Cole be­came the first T&T cy­clist (ju­nior or elite) to earn an en­durance medal at a Pan Amer­i­can Track Cham­pi­onships. In April, he won bronze in the om­ni­um event at the Ju­nior Pan Am Games in Aguas­calientes, Mex­i­co, a city known for pro­duc­ing quick times be­cause of the al­ti­tude.

"My goals for next year are to hope­ful­ly be able to bet­ter my per­for­mance at Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onships on the track and to par­tic­i­pate al­so in the road events at that event as well. Al­so to win na­tion­al cham­pi­onships on the road and track and to go to Caribbean Cham­pi­onships again and hope­ful­ly con­tin­ue the suc­cess that I've had at that event up to now."

Cole, who has been rid­ing com­pet­i­tive­ly since age ten, knows he has to work hard­er to reach the lev­el of cur­rent road race world cham­pi­on Pe­ter Sagan, who is one of his role mod­els. Cole stat­ed that Sagan, who is from Slo­va­kia, is one of the best all round rid­ers in the world and he races with great pas­sion.

"I think that as I get old­er and have time to de­vel­op my­self more phys­i­cal­ly, I can be stronger over time and al­so men­tal­ly so that I can have enough ex­pe­ri­ence to be able to chal­lenge some of the world's best with­out the in­tim­i­da­tion of be­ing at that lev­el, then I will be ready to com­pete at that stage."