The 5th edition of the M&M Engineering Tour is now in the books and from a national standpoint this has got to be one of the best endings in the history of Belizean cycling. Marlon Castillo of Team Santinos/A&G Toshiba rode the tour of his life and successfully defended his title to claim the 2007 M&M Engineering Tour.
For a moment, Belizeans held their collective breaths as the foreign competition dominated most of the race. As the tour progressed, only a selected few of our local riders managed top 10 finishes. Swedish born Bjorn Anderson won the 2nd and 6th stage and wore the yellow jersey throughout most of the tour.
The defining moment came in the gruesome stage 8 which took the riders into the mountains on the Hummingbird Highway. Bjorn Anderson lost some considerable minutes and the overall lead to several key players. Carlos Hernández of the Guatemalan national team was the first to complete the stage with a time of 4:39:11, followed closely by Belize’s Marlon Castillo, who finished 9 seconds behind Hernández. Castillo’s time was good enough to place him as the overall leader going into the 9th and final stage, followed by Johny Morales and Carlos Hernández, both of the Guatemalan national team. Morales trailed by 44 seconds while Hernández trailed by 2:01. Bjorn Anderson dropped into 9th place and 6:42 behind Castillo.
The tour came to an emotional climax as Gregory Lovell of Team Santino’s/AEG TOSHIBA was the first to cross the finish line Sunday afternoon, February 18, with a time of 3:45:53 to claim his 4th stage win of the tour.
But the big story was with Marlon Castillo, who suffered a puncture and had to change bicycles near the end. The pedals of the new bike were of a different make from the style of cycling shoe that Marlon wore, and as a result his feet kept slipping from the pedals. Castillo kept his composure and managed to cross the line in the pack which included the two Guatemalans – Johny Morales and Carlos Hernández.
The exciting end was not without incident. Miguel Perez, of the Guatemalan national team, punched the American cyclist, Eric Keim, who rides for Santino’s/A&G Toshiba. The motive is unknown. Amandala was informed that the matter is being dealt with by the local cycling association.