An­drew Gioan­net­ti

T&T cy­cling team man­ag­er Fitzroy Daniel has said the se­lec­tion of the nine-per­son squad for the 2013 T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion (TTCF) In­ter­na­tion­al East­er Grand Prix, which be­gins at the Ari­ma Velo­drome to­day, is in keep­ing with the as­so­ci­a­tion's man­date of de­vel­op­ment.

Speak­ing with the me­dia at a re­cep­tion to un­veil sev­er­al of the lo­cal and for­eign rid­ers who will be in ac­tion from to­day, at the Min­istry of Sport's head of­fice on Aber­crom­by St, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Daniel ex­plained there was a merge of youth and ex­pe­ri­ence to al­low for less ex­posed ath­letes to take up the man­tle from the sea­soned cam­paign­ers.

"If we were to take a good look at the team, we would re­alise that the com­po­si­tion is a mix­ture of ex­pe­ri­ence and youth. And, this is so be­cause over the past few years, the cy­cling fed­er­a­tion's stress is (on) youth de­vel­op­ment," said Daniel.

"It's the kind of ex­po­sure that the team would re­quire to move in­to that next lev­el."

The T&T team in­cludes the re­cent­ly pro­mot­ed se­nior cy­clist Kwe­si Browne, record-break­ing en­durance rid­er Varun Ma­hara­jh, 2012 Olympic fourth-placed fin­ish­er Njisane Phillip, along with Rudy Ash­ton, young rid­ers Ak­il Camp­bell and Justin Roberts, and per­haps one of the most ex­pe­ri­enced cy­clists, Azikewe Kel­lar. Az­iza Browne and Keiana Lester are T&T's two women rid­ers.

The T&T sprint­ers and en­durance cy­clists are ex­pect­ed to face a moun­tain­ous chal­lenge from some of the top rid­ers in the re­gion, who have ar­rived from Cu­ba, Puer­to Ri­co, Colom­bia, Venezuela, Ar­genti­na, as well as sev­er­al oth­er coun­tries across the re­gion.

Up for the chal­lenge is mul­ti­ple Pan Amer­i­can gold medal­list Lisan­dra Guer­ra Ro­driguez, 25, who is recog­nised as one of the best in the west­ern hemi­sphere. Guer­ra was one of sev­er­al vis­i­tors present at yes­ter­day's un­veil­ing. Her­sony Canelon, who re­cent­ly rewrote Njisane Phillip's fly­ing 200m Pan Amer­i­can record, is al­so in the chal­lenge.

Rep­re­sent­ing the T&T ath­letes yes­ter­day was Ma­hara­jh, who was the coun­try's top per­former at the Pan Amer­i­can Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships, which was held in Mex­i­co City, Mex­i­co, last month.

When asked about his view on the na­tion­al team's se­lec­tion, Ma­hara­jh said he was pleased with the se­lec­tors' de­ci­sions.

"It's prob­a­bly the best team se­lect­ed in a while. It's the best team. Every­body who was se­lect­ed is in top form," said the 21-year-old.

He added, "I be­lieve I can win. I am fa­mil­iar with some of the for­eign rid­ers, hav­ing raced against them at the Pan Am Cham­pi­onships, and they are top com­peti­tors."

Ac­tion will get un­der­way at the Ari­ma Velo­drome from 5 pm, this evening, with pre­lim­i­nary races to open pro­ceed­ings. To­mor­row, races will be held at the same venue, be­fore the com­pe­ti­tion con­cludes at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do on Sun­day.

The TTCF will an­nounce the or­der of events to­day. Ad­mis­sion is $50 for adults and $10 for chil­dren un­der the age of 12 years.

Na­tion­al cy­cling teams

T&T: Njisane Phillip, Aziki­we Kel­lar, Justin Roberts, Kwe­si Browne, Varun Ma­hara­jh, Ak­il Camp­bell, Rudy Ash­ton, Az­iza Browne, Keiana Lester

An­tigua: Tamiko But­ler

Ar­genti­na: Dario Pagliar­ic­ci, Sil­vana Saenz

Bar­ba­dos: Dar­ren Matthews, Jamol East­mond, Philip Clarke

Colom­bia: San­ti­a­go Moralez Ramirez, An­dres Fe­lipe Tor­res, Adreina Rivera

Cu­ba: Ale­jan­dro Moralez Ramirez, Al­ber­to Fer­ran Napoles, Lisan­dra Guer­ra Ro­driguez

Guyana: Alan­zo Greaves, Mar­lon Williams, Haz­i­na Bar­ratt

Ja­maica: Mar­loe Rod­man, Os­hane Williams, Dahlia Palmer

Puer­to Ri­co: Ed­uar­do Colon

USA: Ko­ri­na Huizar, Shel­by Reynolds

Venezuela: Her­sony Canelon, Richard Ochoa, Max­i­mo Ro­jas

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