The 30th To­ba­go In­ter­na­tion­al Cy­cle Clas­sic (TICC) is set to ped­dle off Tues­day. Cy­clists from across the globe are al­ready on the is­land for the an­nu­al six-day cy­cling event.

The open­ing cer­e­mo­ny will take place at TICC Cy­cling Vil­lage at John­sons' Apart­ments, Store Bay, Crown Point get­ting at 9 am. The first leg of the four-stage race will get un­der­way lat­er on Tues­day at 1.30 pm with the Di­vi­sion One 10 laps/120km on the Shir­van/Carn­bee/Buc­coo Cir­cuit.

The Di­vi­sion Two rid­ers will com­pete over Five laps/60 km. Among the first to ar­rive is the five-mem­ber in­ter­na­tion­al all-women team rid­ing un­der the name Team Eleven. They will cre­ate his­to­ry as Team Eleven is the first women's pro­fes­sion­al cy­cling squad to com­pete in the event for the first time in the 30 year his­to­ry of the TICC. The line-up in­cludes Ger­mans Sofie Mangertseder, Sabi­na Os­syra and Ali­na Layne and the Swiss duo of Car­o­line Baur and De­siree Ehler.

Nine­teen-year-old Mangertseder and Os­syra, 20, are train­ing part­ners. They won the Ger­man Na­tion­al Team Pur­suit ti­tles, Mangertseder in 2016 and Os­syra in 2014. Os­syra al­so copped gold at the Ger­man Na­tion­al Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships in 2013. Layne, 25, was 29th in this year's Ger­man Na­tion­al Road Race Cham­pi­onships and will be us­ing the To­ba­go In­ter­na­tion­al Cy­cle Clas­sic to pre­pare for her next race in South Ko­rea in No­vem­ber.

Ehler can be con­sid­ered the most ac­com­plished road rac­er on Team Eleven. She was fourth in both the Road Race and Time Tri­als at the 2012 Swiss Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships and has been in the top team in both events ever year since.

Baur, 22, raced to sixth in the Road Race at the this year's Swiss Cham­pi­onships and was 19th in NEA Race in Fin­land, ear­li­er in the year. Team Eleven ar­rived in To­ba­go on Mon­day and is stay­ing in Buc­coo. With the in­clu­sion of the first all-women teams, the or­gan­is­ers will be look­ing in­to host­ing sep­a­rate cat­e­gories for elite women in the fu­ture.

The sec­ond leg is card­ed for Wednes­day at 8.30 am start­ing along side the YM­CA Pool in Cour­land, Tur­tle Beach. The Di­vi­sion One rid­ers will do bat­tle over four laps/100km on the Tur­tle Beach/Les Coteaux, Arnos Vale Cur­cuit. The Di­vi­sion Two com­pete ride two laps/50km. Leg three is the Ply­mouth Vil­lage Cri­teri­um start­ing on Shel­bourne Street in Ply­mouth on Fri­day with the 50 laps/65km race for Di­vi­sion One rid­ers and the 20 laps/26km for Di­vi­sion Two.

The Di­vi­sion Three and Novice rid­ers will com­pete over five laps/7km. The fourth and fi­nal leg is the Mar­ket Square Cri­teri­um in Wil­son Road Scar­bor­ough on Oc­to­ber 1 where the rid­ers all bat­tle over 60 laps /60 km (Di­vi­sion One)/ 20 laps/20 km (Di­vi­sion Two) and Five laps/5km) Di­vi­sion Three and Novices. Over­all win­ners will be crowned.

This year's edi­tion will cul­mi­nate with the UCI 1.2 Tour of To­ba­go Road Race (120km) which will be­gin at 7.30 pm. Oth­ers events on the sched­ule are the Three stage Moun­tain Bike Clas­sic (Race One-Sep­tem­ber 29-Cour­land Es­tate, Sep­tem­ber 30 and Oc­to­ber 3-Arnos Vale, Oct 1), Clas­sic Kids Cy­cling Fes­ti­val (Oct 1-Wil­son Road, Scar­bor­ough, Oc­to­ber 2-Es­planade, Scar­bor­ough), Corn Soup Line (Sep­tem­ber 28-John­sons Apart­ments), Run Punch Beach Lime and Pinic (Sep­tem­ber 29-Pi­geon Point).