BELIZE CITY, Mon. Feb. 15, 2015–After four days of road races, Criterium races and Individual Time Trials, culminating with the big Road Race yesterday ending in front of Leslie’s Imports, Mexican Juan Manuel Yapur of Yapurland Cycling Team in Cancun emerged the overall champion, as well as the Masters winner, thus garnering the Red Jersey for the 2016 Digicell Valentine Tour. 2nd place for the Tour went to Joel Borland (Digicell-4G); and 3rd was American Chris Harkey (Team Starlight).
The Green Jersey for King of the Sprint was taken by Brandon Cattouse (C-Ray Road Addikz Team) who was first to cross the finish line in yesterday’s Road Race; and the Blue Jersey for King of the Hills belonged to Ron Vasquez of Western Spirit Cycling Team.
C-Ray Juniors and their lone Female cyclist, Kaya Cattouse, boycotted the Road Race on Sunday, in protest of Juniors and Females being excluded from the Tour; but the 5-member Elite team, C-Ray Road Addikz, did participate in the Tour.
With only 3 females participating – the Lovell sisters, Gina and Gabrielle of Digicell-4G, along with reigning Krem Classic champion, Alicia Thompson of Belize Bank Swoosh, Alicia easily took first place over Gabrielle, after Gina had withdrawn early due to mechanical problems.
In the Junior race, another Krem Classic champion, Ernest Bradley-Meighan (Smart Junior) took first place, followed by Shaun Codd (Westrac Alliance) in 2nd, and teammate Anthony Lewis (Westrac Alliance) in 3rd place.
Youth category winners were 1st place Shaun Codd (Westrac Alliance), 2nd Gian Lino (Cabral/Marin Cycling), and 3rd Jeshaun Fraser (WKC Strikers).
As a gesture of good will following the awards ceremony yesterday, champion Juan Manuel Yapur donated 25 Yapurland T-shirts, one each to the top 25 finishers in the Tour. He said he has been coming to participate in races in Belize for many years, and this is the first major race that he has won.
(We will have a more detailed report in our weekend issue.)