Pictures, A Win, Zen, and Going down the Islands

There are a ton of photos taken by a dozen photographers, from three cameras and several websites, that I’ve up loaded to the photos page. Check them out!


Awaiting the decision (Trinidad's Brown beat USA's Chavez)

The past three days have been a blur. We went to the Women’s World Championship Boxing match Friday night. In addition to five bouts, there was also music and all sorts of entertainment. The most entertaining aspect was the fans behind us, a group of young folks who were friends with one of the boxers. “Knock she gold teeth out she mouth” was just one of the things they shouted. The main cheerleader for the crew was deaf, but he rallied his friends to cheer none-the-less. Non-stop comedy. The evening was running on Trini-time, so the final fight didn’t finish until 1:30 AM. Good thing that the next day’s race was in the afternoon. I slept in until 11 and woke up refreshed and ready to race.


Newsday Classic, Port of Spain, Trinidad. 1st Jamiel Danish, 2nd Glen Rendell, 3rd Dennis Guikema

The Newsday Classic was a criterium around King George V Park, only a couple miles from my hosts’ house. A good field assembled and the Rafmon/Mecalfab crew showed up in strength and numbers. From the gun we were aggressive. Not a single break got away without our guys in it, and we won every prime! About midway through the race, Glen Rendell, a Canadian with two current national championship titles on the track, and Jamiel opened up a gap sprinting for a prime. A lap later I followed the wheel of a Team Trek (Trinidad) rider who attempted to bridge the gap. Once he opened up enough of a gap between the two of us and the field, I put in effort so we could join Jamiel and Glen. Our four-man break opened up a wider gap with each lap. Starting with three laps to go, I put in a couple attacks, but couldn’t get away, so in the final lap I wound it up and gave Jamiel a blazing leadout. Glen is not easy to beat in a sprint, but Jamiel dug deep and took it at the line, while I was able to keep my momentum for third. Behind us in the field sprint the team faired very well, and we took five of the top ten places!


"Whining" Trini style

We celebrated Saturday night by going out to Port of Spain’s hottest nightclub, Zen. Although I’m accustomed to seeing the sunrise as we head out on our 6 AM rides, this morning we saw it rise on the way home from the club.


Going "Down the Islands" with Shivana and Raffy

Five hours later, I woke up from a bang on the door, a blast of light, and Raffy’s loud announcement. “Get ready. We go down the islands in 30 minutes.” Jamiel, Jason, Raffy, Shivana and I went to the marina, took out a boat of a friend of Raffy’s, and headed out to a chain of islands. The weather was overcast and later rainy, but we had a great time, swimming and meeting up with friends of Raffy’s at vacation homes and on anchored boats.

Today (Monday) I’m flying to Barbados. I’ll be staying with friends of the Figuera family (my hosts in Trinidad) and will be doing three races this weekend with the team. Next Monday I fly back to Trinidad for a night and then off to Venezuela!