This week’s Personality of the Week column pays special tribute to Shane Vasquez, a young and accomplished cyclist, who yearns not only for the betterment of himself, but also for other young people.
Riding with the Western Spirits Cycling Team, Shane finished the race, the 78th annual, in 5 hours 58 minutes, still six minutes short of the time he dreams of beating.
He said that he started out Saturday’s race knowing that he was going to win; that is the positive mindset he began pedaling with, he told us.
On what did he base his prediction? Shane told us that it is based on what had happened to him in the previous three races. In 2003, he crashed twice, at mile seven and a half and at the Hawksworth Bridge; the next year, he just missed the big win; placing second; in 2005, he again crashed twice. He said, there was a year of bad luck, a year of good luck, and then a year of bad luck. So good luck was bound to come his way in 2006.
He did not depend only on luck, though; he trained rigorously after he recovered from his post-2005 cycling injuries.
After being off the bike for 8 months and 4 days, he took to the hilly asphalts of Cayo, pumping pedals twice daily.
"From January until Cross Country, I never took a rest day," said Shane. "Coming into Holy Week, I cut back on training."
This, he said, is called "tapering; recovering." Coming close to the race, he loaded up with carbs and protein and eased up on the training, riding only 10 miles or 6 miles some days. This was the schedule he used in 2004 – his good year.
According to Shane, he has won the King of the Hills four times and still holds the championship. He won the National Road Championship in 2005 and this year, the Cross Country. His next goal is to win the KREM New Year’s Day Cycling Classic.
Next week, he tries to win the Vuelta Ciclista a El Salvador, in El Salvador, riding with the Guatemalan team, Quetzaltenango. It’s an 8-day professional race with lots of international competitors.
According to Shane, he has been riding since he was 16. He dedicated two and a half years to mountain bike racing in the Cayo District, and then he progressed into road bike racing.
Today, at the age of 26, he is a force to be reckoned with in the cycling world and Shane knows that after this, he will be the man to watch, and to beat.
Just as the media reports of his big win on Saturday has inspired many, Shane was inspired in his teenaged years by media reports of the great brothers, Charlie and Michael Lewis.
"I wanted to beat them [their time]," he revealed. I said, "I know I could beat those guys some day.?"
He remembers Gerald Simmons as his team’s founder. He shares the sport with two of his brothers – Ron and Teddy. He also gave special credit to the lodge at Chaa Creek, Safe Tours Belize and Lowen Construction for their sponsorship.
Proprietors of Chaa Creek, Mick and Lucy Fleming, have not only sponsored them in the sport, but have raised Shane and some of his siblings as their adopted children. Shane says that while he works at their lodge as a computer technician, they also give him the time off he needs to train and ride.
Sadly, both of Shane’s parents have passed away, leaving a total of 9 children. Shane recalls that his father passed away in 1989, and his mother passed away in 1993. They lived in Belize City, Orange Walk, and then moved to San Ignacio.
He said that his half brother, Hon. Ainslie Leslie, took them to live in San Ignacio after their father passed away in Orange Walk.
They met the Flemings, he said, in 1993,while they were volunteering on a project to develop the Macal River Park. At the time, he was a primary school student, about 12 or 13 years old. Mick Fleming invited the youth to their place to look at his horses, because they were into racing horses, said Shane.
After their mom passed, the Flemings took in all 8 brothers and 1 sister, but 4 of the younger boys were placed with foster parents while the other 4 boys and the girl stayed with the Flemings. Some brothers eventually went off to the United States.
It was the Flemings that paid their way through school, said Shane. He has completed education up to the tertiary level, having completed his associate degree in Agricultural Science at the University of Belize. During that course of study, he took computer classes and engineering, and he later took up a course in the United States through Thomson Education Direct, which enabled him to study computer programming and repair, through long distance courses. He aspires to pursue an online Bachelor’s in computer science and programming at University of Phoenix.
Apart from pursing higher education, Shane also wants to invest in young people like himself while doing what he loves most biking. He wants to start a bicycle company that would target young people, while getting them involved with the tourism industry. Through the venture, he hopes to nurture young people aspiring to become cyclists themselves, he added. This is something he hopes to begin in the coming months. This would enable him to devote himself to something he really enjoys, Shane asserted.
Apart from cycling, he also loves horseracing. He was once a jockey and he wants to purchase a horse so that his friends can "do something positive." He said that he shares the same dream for young people of all ethnic groups, as he observes too many of his peers going astray and has seen for himself where cycling and other sports can inspire positive changes.
"You can go out there and do your best," he encouraged.
He wants to tell young guys coming up in the sport to be humble and positive in the sport.
"A lot of people tend to want to win right away, but one of the greatest things is to be humble and positive in what you’re doing. Look to God, because only he can help you."