TORTOLA—At least 12 St. Croix cyclists are expected for the weekend's Jason Bally Memorial 100K on Tortola, to battle teams from French, Dutch St. Martin and Antigua along with the hosts.

The Cruzan contingent has no plans of walking away empty handed. “Our national champion Robert Brauman will be coming and we will try our best to ride for him,” Juancito Gario of STX 340 team said following Sunday’s time trial where St. Croix riders occupied second to fourth places. “We want to make sure he wins. St. Croix has to take something. We are bringing all the guys that rode in the time trial back and one way or the other, we are going with something.”

Gario sees the race in memory of the Trinidadian cyclist who was gunned down in October 1999, as a team race and he’s happy the race has been reverted to the original course on Tortola’s south coast, between West End and Beef Island. “The last time we did it with the new course, it was raining heavily and I didn’t even get to see the course, because there was so much rain and water,” he recalled. “But, I’m glad they brought back the old course. It will be interesting. We love those hills. We can’t wait. One of us must win the sprint climb. If we don’t win the overall, we must get a climb. But, we are going with something.”

Team St. Croix

BVI Cycling Federation president David Thomas said St. Croix’s Sue Brown who has won the race before, will face riders from French and Dutch St. Martin. “The numbers in the race may be small, but just the simple fact of having the race again in the absence of not having it last year because of the Caribbean Cycling Championships, its good to keep it going and let people know we will continue to honor the memory of Jason Bally,” Thomas said. “I think the race should be really good. The cyclists around the region have gotten very, very good over the past year and it should be an exciting race. I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

The race will begin at 8 a.m. across from the Department of Youth Affairs, head to West End turnaround, out to the airport, back to West End before finishing where it started. “Because we don’t have any police support, we are asking for volunteers to come out and help us,” Thomas stated. “What we will do differently this year—again because we don’t have the police support that we need—we will do a controlled ride down to Sea Cows Bay to the spot where the plaque in honor of Bally is, stop and have a moment of silence in his memory, then continue with the race.”

Thomas said while his murder is unsolved, he hopes that one day the killer’s conscience might bother them and they will come forward. “We just need to keep his memory alive and make sure this race continues,” he said.

© Copyright 2003 BVI Cycling Federation

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