NEVIS CYCLE & TRIATHLON CLUB

Team Nevis traveled to Anguilla for the annual John T memorial road race on the 2nd July. The team consisted of four riders, namely Reginald Douglas James Weekes Keith Jones and Jack Bruno. This flight was ok except there was a question whether we would receive our bikes in time for the race, but with some luck on our side all the bikes arrived by the evening before the race.The race was schedule to start at 10:00am but at the race briefing the starting time was changed and pushed forward to 11:00 am. This however put two of our riders between a rock and a hard place considering the race will take over 3 hours to complete and they will have to check in at 3:25, not withstanding we prepared for race day.
As the sun arose quietly and so did the team as they prepared for a hearty breakfast and a hard day of riding on a 75 mile course at race pace. There were competitors from Antigua, St. Maarten, Guyana, St.Vincent, Tortola, Trinidad, Nevis, and Anguilla of course. After a hearty breakfast the team was ready for the task at hand, and after a quick scan of the game plan we headed out for the race site.
All the riders gathered at the start line pumped and ready to go only to realize that the race even started later than planned this put James and Keith further at risk in missing their flight as they had an earlier flight than the rest of the team. Finally the cry was made for the final count down as the cyclist shuffled at the line in a total count of about 65 riders. At the sound of the whistle we were off, with the leads changing several times as the riders struggle to get into their zones. Team Nevis held fast until the first turn around where Jack got spit out at the back of the pellaton. Loosing one member, the team still clung like a parasite cling to lead group. It was only until the first climb at Sandy Ground that a gap got between us and the lead group, as I looked across and watch my team mate Reggie I realize that he was in trouble, the climb did a number on him and he began to fade. It was then up to me to either leave him behind and chase down the lead group or try and pull him along until he recovered, but as a team we have to work together so I pulled him along until we caught up with Keith who was also far ahead and in regrouping we were able to get Reggie rested, we then forged ahead again to find that we began to make up ground and pull back many riders. After getting Reggie back in his game we faced another problem, at the beginning of the final lap I pulled up to Keith and told him we were out of time and have to go catch the flight so we reluctantly had to break formation and leave Reggie to fight on alone as we pulled off to get prepared to fly out. We found out that Reggie had hung on to the second group of riders to the end, but the race had taken its toll in the final minutes, with Reggie just pushed out of the top 20 award slots.
Ps; WE STILL MISSED OUR FLIGHT!! IMAGINE THAT.