Comments on: Williams wins five-stage race in record time

By: keith massay

keith massay — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:48:45 +0000

Jimbob, my sentiments and concerns are similar to yours, so much so that I wrote an article to all three newspapers expressing the travesty that took place at the event. the title of the article(if published), is “About the 5 stage race/possibilities”.

As Palmfly mentioned, we should still congratuate the winner, and all prize reciepients for their efforts and dedication to the sport. We have a talented group of young cyclist in GY,no question about that, and we should try our best to encourage them in spite of the ignorance and power abuse expressed by the controlling body.

By: Palmfly

Palmfly — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:19:15 +0000

Amist all the controversey there is a shining star that deserves recognition. Congratulations for a well deserved victory to a disciplined and well grounded young cyclist,Geron Williams.
Your discipline and dedication will reap you greater results in the future.
Hats off to all the participating cyclist who we should also recognise for their efforts in making this a competitive race resulting in a new record time. Keep on peadling guys..don’t let the politics ruin our sport!!!!

By: Branal

Branal — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:48:21 +0000

The organiser of this needs to get themselves in order.Let’s look at some of the critical aspects of this event, we need transparency:(1)They claim that $6.2 Million was spent to run this event..that’s impossible,the cycling fraternity thinks otherwise,let’s see the proof(2)The recording and time-keeping was notoriously inadequate(3)The race official was bias instead of being impartial,but this was expected since this same individual had a team(Team Eldorado)in the race and he was seen and heard directing cyclist to ease the pace or speed up same so as to benefit his team(3)this event had 1 person doing the timing and recording(hence the discrepancies)an event of this magnitude should have no less than 3 time keepers and their scribers.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:50:43 +0000

Congrats to the winners !!
As far as the organizers hoping to encourage more overseas cyclists next year,that’s another story. Why should any overseas rider spend any hard earned money to help this cause ??
Let’s recap some of the highlights of this year’s race.
1: A chasing group is allowed to be paced by a truck
2: Officials are unable to calculate the race times of Stage 1 & 2
3: Several riders claim they were ‘robbed’.

Is it too much to ask for officials
1: to start disqualifying or adding time penalties to the cyclists using trucks ??
2: to have adequate staff with a few watches assigned to 5 or ten rider positions at the finish. (Babu,you record the finish times for riders 1 to 6,Putagee you get 7 to 12 etc.
3:to have a 15 minute protest period after the results are posted before they are made official

What’s the reported response to concerns being raised by competitors this year.
1: You overseas based riders contribute nothing to local cycling,so hush up.
2: Let’s ban riders who voice dissatisfaction from future crab dances.

What’s the date for next year’s race,I need to rush off and book my airfare to this classic event.

By: Nice Boy

Nice Boy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:51:58 +0000

There have always been issues with time keeping and the diligence required in an event like this, I suggest in the future they should have committees assigned to monitor the race with in the race, so as not to afford this kind of controversy. Secondly they should always have some “avenue” to allow a rider to file a protest, this option should be available in any organization. They should not be the “banning of riders” because of organizers mistakes, especially when there could be some validity to the claim, sometimes a common-sense approach can be the best approach any intellectuals should recognize that instead of a dictatorial mandate. Let the riders ride …