No matter what people tell you about this race, you can never be mentally prepared until you experience it.
The day started early Saturday morning at around 4am. Me, Chris, and John awoke and ate some breakfast prepared by the locals supporting us. When then heading to the start line around 5am still in the darkness. The race begins at 6am, which may seem like an strange start time for a pro race but the fact is if you dont start that early the heat will make it down right dangerous. So we arrived at the start line and was greeted by hundreds of fans already out. After going through the bike check and signing in we lined up and prepared for the maddness to begin.
The gun sounded and we took off like it was a crit. Chris warned me that the start was crazy and dudes are killing themselves. I was not wanting to get sucked into all the attacks and hard riding so I just cruised to the back and proceded to tail gun it for the next 30 miles. There really wasnt much action the first 70 miles except for an early break, but with a few efforts the our team managed to get the break within a reasonable distance and John then bridged the gap. So as we started our journey back to Belize city we had John in the break, my legs felt good, and the race seemed easily so far.
From the turn around til around mile 90, me and Chris were covering moves, however we missed a decent size group that was bridging the gap to john, so I jumped with another dude and that was the last I saw of the main field. Me and the Mexican rider made it accross the gap quickly, and I found myseelf along with John in a lead group of ten or twelve. Many times breaks this big don't work. To mmany guys will want to sit on and get a free ride. Unfortunatly this was the case so I attacked in an attempt to restore some order. They caught me and John attacked bringing 3 dudes with him and that was it. That ended up being the winning break, and john went on the get 3rd. My race for the win was over, however my race for survival was only begining.
My half of the break continued to work together in order the stay away from the pack but we were caught by a select group of 20 with my teammate Chris who went on the get 9th. This catch occured with around ten miles to go in the race. With 135 miles already in my legs I was in no such state to mix it up with the guys in the group so I sat in the back just trying to get home. At this point our team car is up with john so no more water for me an chris. And its around 150 degrees (not really but in my mind set it seemed like it). Oh yea I forgot to mention the 30mph head wind blowing in our face since the turn around. As I said above, despite everyone's advice about the heat and wind I was not prepared. This has to be something like the very depths of hell! My advice is if you ever plan on doing this race, go to your local gym, set your trainer up in the suana, with a fan blowing right in your face, then ride 7hrs.
So I finished and all in all it was a great experince. The people are so passonate about cycling in Belize and it really creates an awesome environment. I really hope to return.
