Local rider Adam Alexander is looking forward to competing against his foreign friends in the Beacon T&T Cycling Festival which opened at the Queen's Park Savannah last night. The festival, touted as the premier cycling event in the Caribbean, will feature some of the world's top riders competing at the five venues across T&T until April 25. Alexander, who placed eighth overall at last year's Savannah 14-Lap Road Event, is part of a local contingent, also including Emile Abraham, Elijah Green and Chris Sellier, who will take on an international field headed by Argentina's Olympic gold medallist Walter Perez and 13-time US national champion Giddeon Massie.
"I've ridden with some of those foreign guys at the Pan Am and CAC Games, in the United States and in other places," he told the T&T Guardian on Lady Chancellor Hill, Port-of-Spain earlier this week.
"I have a lot of friends from Columbia, Venezuela, USA and Canada coming in, so its going to be fun." Alexander will enter the festival fresh from the Easter Grand Prix in which he won two silver medals and one bronze at the Arima Velodrome. "I feel strong going into this year's Festival. I wasn't in top form in 2009 but I did my best." Leading up to the series, he and his Team Foundation members Hanesly Alexis, David Haye, King Ettiene, Roger Malpur and Clinton Grant have been riding up to 500-600 miles a week.
"We've been training really hard this year. When we're going for mileage, we head to Mayaro, Toco, places like that. On a Wednesday, we'll go up Chancellor a few times." He said it was a privilege to compete in front of a home crowd at such a prestigious event every year. "It's good for us because you get to race against these guys who've been in the Olympics and the big events all over the world. It's a good challenge." Meanwhile, Elisha Greene, another of T&T's top cyclists, said that the Festival would be fiercly competitive.
"The public can expect the best because we are going to give the best," he said. "We are going to prove to the government that [when they invest in our sport] we are not wasting their money." In all, 81 events will be staged at the Queen's Park Savannah, Skinner Park (April 17), the Arima Velodrome (April 18), the Dwight Yorke Stadium (April 22) and King George V Park (April 25), which will serve a festival venue for the first time.
SELECTIONS
April 15: Series Opening Night 14-lap Road Event, Queen's Park Savannah, 8 pm.
April 17: Track Events, Skinner Park, 5 pm.
April 18: Track Events, Arima Velodrome, 4 pm.
April 22: 45-lap Road Event, Dwight Yorke Stadium, Tobago, 4 pm.
April 25: Series Closing Night-40-lap Road Event, King George V Park, 2 pm.
