Since I've been without internet for a while this post will probably be like my longest ever with a lot of updates from my trip to Belize.

First, I'll start at the end.



This is the real reason you come to Belize to race, the vacation afterwards. Eventhough we just had one day, we drove 150 miles down to Shalini's village which is just a 10 min boat ride from the peninsula. So we got to hang out on the beach a little bit. This is her brother's bar right on the beach.

We went out on the boat and did some of that famous snorkling, and got to hang out with her family who were very gracious and fun to hang out with. I had a great time. If fact, I think I am a famous in Belize now. They even had a little parade for us when we got back to the village after the race. Well the parade consisted of us riding on the roof of the car holding our trophies and doing laps around the park while people cheered.


Let's back up the story a bit. The Cross Country race is a pretty big deal in Belize. I mean we were in the news, on the radio, and even interviewed for TV. On Friday before the race we did what I would call the Belize version of the Today show full on with their "Meredith" and "Matt" interviewing us and having us talk about the race.


They even had us ride a parade around the city 2 days before the race with full on with police escort and team cars behind.


The riders made an appearance at the special Olympics on Saturday to hand out medals to the kids competing. Everywhere in the city everyone seemed to know about the race and to wish Shalini luck.

So before I get to the race summary, a few random notes.

The bike shop in the village on the way to the race start.

Some of the villages have the internets; however I think there's a hamster and a wheel running the signal strength.

The village of Cayo where the race started. The race basically was 76 miles going east from the border of Guatemala to the coast in Belize City (hence the title "cross country")

We were going to stay in the village, but someone down the hill decided to have a Belizian house party, so Shalini got authorization to move us to the hotel resort in town. This was full on Mayan hut tourist trap. It was cool place though. Shalini's sister also has a restaurant in the village and she was nice enough to have us for dinner and the best beans and rice I had all week. By the way, I had beans and rice every day, and they were good (and now I am 5lb heavier).

So, I'll give you a little race summary now. Be warned if you hate reading race summaries. This will probably be my longest, and I'll not even get to the whole thing because this was like bizzaro race.

Why did I go to Belize in the first place? Shalini Zabeneh invited me to come down and race with her, and was the nicest host I can imagine. She's someone I met through CTS, she's actually one of our coaching clients (although not mine).

The start was like some sort of Chinese fire drill with people running around and a lot of yelling. They like to yell and argue down here, as evidenced by the technical meeting before the race. The big controversy was that you had to have at least 2 Belizian riders on your team in order to have just one foreigner on the team. Our team, Sagitun, had two Belizian riders registered, but Jamie, Shini’s teammate, dislocated her shoulder the other week and wasn’t able to ride. They tried to get me thrown out of the race on that technicality (since only one Belizian was going to start), but we got around that by having Jamie officially start the race. So all she did was take her arm out of the sling and ride across the bridge for the neutral start. Then she promptly dropped out. Problem solved.

We really lucked out with the weather too, it was relatively cool at the start and still a little foggy from the big rain the night before. I was really relieved because on Friday it was 95 degrees with the feels like temp at 107 degrees. Rog and I went out for a ride and I thought I was going to burst in to flames.

In the race there were over 40 prime sprints. Usually we only see primes in crits, but here because the roads are so straight and flat that they need to do something to spice it up. It was hard to know when the sprints were coming up because none were marked by mileage in the race bible. It was all stuff like Bob’s Bar and Grill, bridge in Tayo, or really vauge like 3rd banana tree after the rock. Oh and the crazy thing was how they marked the primes. They’d have this guy on a motorcycle ride a head of the field, stop on the side of the road and wave his flag at the sprint point. Sometimes when the sprints were pretty close together the guy would just ride slow next to the field and wave his flag, then it was like sprint past the motorcycle. It was so crazy.

With all those primes and a name like Sparky you can imagine what I did. At the start I led us off the bridge and just started ramping up the speed. There were like 3 primes within the first 2 miles. I let the first prime go, then went hard for the second prime, which was like for a $100 and it was all fun and games from there. I got a gap after the won the 3rd and stayed away for the big $500 one at like mile 5. It was so much fun because honestly I think I scared those girls. Apparently no one attacks in Belize. They just ride and sit the wheels.

So after much attacking and sprinting from me going for about dozen primes we got a group of 5 going by about mile 10 or 12. It was a perfect group, me, Shalini, two American's on "different" teams (not really), and one other Belizian. The Belize girl refused to work, so we had a bit of a "discussion" which started with me taking her off the back of the group and ended with me attacking the group to hopefully shed her. Anyway, that put me off the front pretty quick and I had a minute gap within a few miles. Then I hear Rog on the radio telling me to stop working and I'm like, phew, because I still had almost 50 miles to go and I definitely didn't want to ride that alone.

In the move the the day Shini and one of the other Americans in the race bridge up to me, that's why Rog told me to stop working. And then there were 3.... I mean and then there were only two people doing work in the race. Long story short the other American who we'll just call "Sucky Suck" just sucked wheel for 40 miles on our break and never took one pull, not once. Several times when Shini just tried to get behind her, the girl freaking slowed down to practically a stop not to let Shini get behind her. She wouldn't even come off the back let Shini go behind to the support car for water. So I admit I probably put the girl in the gutter once a bit too enthusiastically, and that maybe wasn't the best tactic my part (but I was warned by the official so I stopped). But she made me so mad, who flippin' rides like that? I understand sitting on tactically, but that was Bush league.

Long story short, the next 40 miles involved me setting the much of the pace in to a 15-20 mph headwind back to Belize City. Shini helped out a lot too, but this was her race and the other girl knew that, so I worked the best I could. That's basically why I got the rest of the primes too. I was on the front so much of the time.

Anyway, we finally get to Belize City and we have about 3 miles to go to the finish. The other girl finally attacks as we take the turn in to the city. Without hesitation promptly get on her wheel and say to her “You sit on for 40 miles and that’s the best you got? Come on, can't you ride faster than that!” He, he. Badgering is so much fun! Anyway, she attacks once more, Sheni counters, and I counter hers with a mile or two to go. I get like a 10 sec gap immediately? Turns out the other girl has now come to a dead stop with Shini. She's willing to lose the race at this point. She really didn't think I would take the win from Shini, but I totally would have if for none else to make sure she didn't win. Anyway, Shini attacks her when she stops, gets a gap and gets up to me with about 1000m to go (I had sat up to wait). I pull Shini the best I can but with 500 m I just scream at her to go. The other girl is coming hard though so I dig to find one more gear. There's no way I tow someone who sits on for 40+ miles and let her beat me with those grade school tactics. So the race ends with Shini first (now the pride of Belize), me in second (a new hero in Belize), and the wheel sucker in third. It just goes to show you folks, you suck the wheel and karma will get you, and if karma doesn’t then I will.