Yesterday was the start of the 2014 Tobago Cycling Classic. It is a special event for me as it was my first international race outside of Canada in 2005 as a junior rider. It didn’t go well that year, as I broke my chain on Stage 2, crashed hard, and spent the remaining days finishing my Algebra homework.
This year is my seventh time participating in the event. What makes the Tobago Cycling Classic so appealing is the ambiance. I don’t know of any other event where you can race an international field in the morning and enjoy 85-degrees crystal clear water and a sandy beach in the afternoon, so it was only natural that I quickly accepted the invite to race for Emile Abraham’s Incycle Predator squad this year.
Stage 1
Having won on two different occasions on the same course (Stage 6 – Tour of Trinidad and Tobago and Stage 1 of Tobago Cycling Classic 2012), I had high motivation to repeat. The race consisted of 10 laps of 10.7km of mostly flat terrain with a few intermediate sprints. On the very first lap, I got in a breakaway with one of my teammates, Winston David. On the following lap, the break split with him and a Swedish rider off the front. After that, the peloton came back to my group. The heat (38 degrees C) affected lots of riders and the gap went up to 2 minutes, 30 seconds with two laps to go. Then Emile and I broke away with a few other riders. I led him out for third and as we crossed the line, we heard our teammate Winston had won, making it a very strong start for the team with the yellow and points jersey, plus the team GC lead.
Stage 2
The second stage promised to be harder with four laps of 26km with steep climbs and twisted descents. We took charge of the race right from the start. After the first time up the longest climb, the field had shredded from 92 to about 30, and then the first descent did as much damage with only 12 of us remaining in the front group. Michael Olheiser and I then rode tempo all stage to protect Winston’s lead and giving him the best chance to score more points over the other riders. He finished second on the stage behind French rider Daniel Aurélien.
After an enjoyable rest day filled with a bicycle ride escorted by a mobile Tobagonian DJ and an afternoon beach party with limbo, dancing and local food, we were ready for stage 3, a (50 x 1.3km lap) technical criterium in Plymouth. Heading to the race, the clouds started to get darker and darker and the rain started pounding pretty heavily just as we were about to start the race.
With the possibility of lightning, stage 3 was reduced to 30laps. With the rain involved, I decided not to use my race wheels and opted for my training wheels which had better tires for rain. Straight from the gun, I followed attacks from Yondi Shmidth and Nick Stopler from Netherlands. The next lap, with Emile Abraham and Winston David on my wheel, I upped the pace to separate ourselves from the peloton, and soon enough, we had a good lead.
The rain was torrential at some points and we kept the pace high while I grabbed most of the sprint points. Near the end of the race, we tried to break away from the Dutch riders, but Yondi was responding to all of our attacks with ease. With 5 laps to go, I led Emile out for the sprint, but in the end we finished a disappointing 2nd and 3rd. We both moved up in the Omnium, now in 3rd and 4th, with Winston’s lead also increasing over 2nd place and the Team GC ws pretty much locked up.
Stage 4 in Scarborough was in a much more open 1km circuit including a small punchy hill and this time the forecast was hot and sunny. Our plan was to play it safe by riding at the front while saving as much energy as possible for the next day’s UCI race. We also planned for me take as many sprint points as possible to claim the sprint title, and try a good leadout for Emile to take the stage win. We rode well, but got disorganized with riders taking risks and some crashes and we couldn’t achieve a proper leadout so Yondi Smitdt took the win again. In the end everything work out well though as we won the overall, the best team and Sprint jersey.
After the criterium was the UCI technical meeting for the Tour of Tobago and things started to go backwards. Back in September, I asked Team Silber Pro Cycling permission in order to accept the invitation for racing the Tobago classic and UCI Tour of Tobago. The usual rule forbidding UCI riders to race with other teams was supposed to be waived for the event and everything was sorted out in due form.
However on the morning of the race, Michael Olheiser and I were told that the request was denied and that we couldn’t participate in the race. The news was crushing as both of us came especially for that one-day race and were highly confident to be able to play our cards and try and win it having been racing so dominantly in the four stages of the Tobago Cycling Classic. After a quick breakfast, we had to switch from riders to director and mechanic for the other guys. Our squad teamed up with the US Team Rio Grande in which three other Canadians were racing to provide better support.
Having done the Tour of Tobago as a rider, I knew it was an epic race but this time I got to see it from behind. Quick into the race, we went straight into action as two of our riders had mechanicals on the first uncategorized climb. Then we hit the first descent and the twisty turns and wet roads resulte in many crashes.
By kilometer 45km we finally made contact to the lead group in which we still had Emile, Winston and Andrew. At that point, the lead peloton was already down to about 30 riders. A few kilometers later, we hit one of the first set of very steep climbs. Andrew and Emile both got dropped, but Winston was still looking good. That climb was followed by another twisty decent in which Emile has amazing skills. He made it back to the group but not incident-free as he came close crashing getting close to a motobike and breaking the cleats on his shoes. On the next climb, luckily, I had some “duct tape” and was able to tape his feet to the pedals ! We didn’t see the front of the race from that point, but Emile put on a good fight to finish 12th. I am now on a boat to Trinidad as we will be racing another criterium there where we hope to take revenge!
Final GC
1. Winston David (USA) Incycle- Predator 82
2. Patrik Moren (Swe) Team Argon18 Scandinavia 80
3. Schmidt Yondi (Ned) UW&TC de Volharding 76
4. Emile Abraham (Tri) Incycle- Predator 70
5. Jean Michel Lachance (Can) Incycle- Predator 52
6. Oscar Pachon (Col) Coco’s 49
7. Rafael Meran (Dom) Team Foundation 44
8. Darren Matthews (Bar) Coco’s 39
9. Evan Murphy (USA) Team Foundation 35
10. Aurelien Daniel (Fra) PSL/Well Services Petroleum Co. 35
11. Sanchez Tavera (Dom) Team Foundation 30
12. Joschka Beck (Ger) Biketempel Fachklinik Dr. Herzog 30
13. Patrik Ericsson (Swe) Team Argon18 Scandinavia 30
14. Stopler Nick (Ned) UW&TC de Volharding 29
15. Jamol Eastmond (Bar) HeatWave 27
16. Vicente Sanabria (Cuba) The Braves 24
17. Dylan Van Zijl (Ned) PSL Cycling Club of Trinidad and 21
18. Gyasi Sulvaran (Ned) Team Designa Kokken 20
19. Stefan Schnelder (Ger) NRW Best-Citzenships 19
20. Anton Varabei (Can) Team Rio Grande Cycling 18
21. Max Jenkins (USA) PSL/Well Services Petroleum Co. 17
22. Joshua Alexander (Tri) Team Foundation 14
23. Timothy Rugg (USA) Team Rio Grande Cycling 14
24. Patrick Wachter (Ger) Biketempel Fachklinik Dr. Herzog 13
25. Matthieu Jeannes (Fra) PSL/Well Services Petroleum Co. 13
26. Michael Olheiser (USA) Incycle- Predator 12
27. Jesper Hansen (Den) Team Designa Kokken 12
28. Gevan Samuel (Tri) The Braves 11
29. Camilo Ulloa (Col) Coco’s 9
30. Wilhelm Felix (Ger) Biketempel Fachklinik Dr. Herzog 8
31. Felix Cruz (Dom) Team Foundation 7
32. Kyle Murphy (USA) Team Foundation 7
33. Adam Alexander (Tri) Team Foundation 6
34. Jamie Wilkins (Gbr) Incycle- Predator 5
35. Bhogal Alex (Ger) UW&TC de Volharding 5
36. Carlos Ospina (Col) Coco’s 5
37. Andrew Scarano (USA) Incycle- Predator 4
38. Teern Jorn (Ned) UW&TC de Volharding 4
39. Peter Carlsson (Swe) Team Argon18 Scandinavia 3
40. Jyme Bridges (Ant) SlipStream 3
41. Joshua Huppertz (Ger) NRW Best-Citzenships 2
42. Trevor Connor (Can) Team Rio Grande Cycling 2
43. Didier Caspers (Ned) PSL/Well Services Petroleum Co. 2
44. Quintel Winkel (AHO) Team Foundation 0
45. Jake Silverberg (USA) SlipStream 0
46. Andre Simon (Ant) The Braves 0
47. Daniel Pattern (Gbr) Incycle- Predator 0
48. Denis Bojarkin (Ger) Biketempel Fachklinik Dr. Herzog 0
49. Melvin Van Zijl (Ned) PSL/Well Services Petroleum Co. 0
50. Frederick Stormann (Ger) NRW Best-Citzenships 0
51. Marco Massink (Ned) Team Designa Kokken 0
52. Thibault Jeannes (Fra) PSL/Well Services Petroleum Co. 0
53. Varun Maharajh (Tri) PSL Cycling Club of Trinidad and 0
54. Joaan Leinau (Ger) NRW Best-Citzenships 0
55. Eric Losak (USA) Team Rio Grande Cycling 0
56. Andreas Thell (Swe) Team Argon18 Scandinavia 0
57. Marcus Svensson (Swe) Team Argon18 Scandinavia 0
58. Gabriel Ossyra (Ger) Biketempel Fachklinik Dr. Herzog 0
59. Anders Ekh (Swe) Team Argon18 Scandinavia 0
60. Ivan Viglasky (USA) CK Banska Bystrica – Slovakia 0
61. Stefan Bojarkin (Ger) Biketempel Fachklinik Dr. Herzog 0
62. Luois Leinau (Ger) NRW Best-Citzenships 0
63. Roberto Vukovic (Ger) NRW Best-Citzenships 0
64. Tomas Harag (Slo) CK Banska Bystrica – Slovakia 0
65. Joseph Garcia (USA) Team Rio Grande Cycling 0
66. Ernesto Salazar (Ven) The Braves 0
67. Jovian Gomez (Tri) SlipStream 0
68. Jesse Kelly (Bar) HeatWave 0
69. Alexander Kusters (Ger) NRW Best-Citzenships 0
70. Luca Herbert (Ger) Biketempel Fachklinik Dr. Herzog 0
71. Mark Codrington (Tri) SlipStream 0
72. Sheldon Ramjit (Tri) SlipStream 0
73. Joe Wilshire (Gbr) SlipStream 0
74. Barry Luces (Tri) PSL Cycling Club of Trinidad and 0
75. Kevin Lynch (Can) Team Rio Grande Cycling 0
76. Hogenboom Niels (Ned) Team Designa Kokken 0
77. Fredrik Olofsson (Swe) Team Argon18 Scandinavia 0
78. Dominik Merseburg (Ger) Biketempel Fachklinik Dr. Herzog 0
79. James Hadeed (Tri) HeatWave 0
80. Marlon Williams (Guy) HeatWave 0
Full results here.
Video of Tour of Tobago here.
Photos: Myself and tobagophoto.com
