Darren Matthews took Tobago by storm over the last week sweeping every major prize in the 26th annual Tobago International Cycle Classic/UCI 1.2 Tour of Tobago. He first took the four stage Tobago Cycle Classic, which ran from Wednesday to Saturday and then outwitted his rivals in the UCI Tour on Sunday. The 21-year-old Barbadian also led his Team Coco outfit to the top team award in the Classic and captured the Under-23, Caribbean and King of the Hill prizes in the UCU Tour.
Matthews paid tribute to this teammates for his victories. "Without my team I would not have been able to put on such a great show. I did not expect us to do that well as we came here with a small team. The relationship in the team is really great. I know we had a good team for the climb but I did not expect the winning the overall title." The Toco Coco members were Colombian Jaime Ramirez and Antonio Alarcon and Ivan Dominiquez of Cuba. The Bridgetown resident also said training in the high altitude of Bogotá, Colombia, earlier this year, paid big dividends. "Jaime and I trained together in Bogotá. We know each other's strengths and weaknesses. We trained especially hard for the hills. Ivan rode a good tour to take second in Saturday's 60-lap criterium."
On capturing the King of the Hill award, Matthews said it was a revenge for him. "Some of those climbs were hard on everyone especially in Charlotteville. It is there that I faltered last year as I broke my chain. I took revenge on it and that is where I made my move. The lead did not last but we got lucky to get back in front later on." Meanwhile, race director Jeffrey Charles told T&T Guardian he was happy with Sunday's Tour of Tobago as last minute changes had to be made to the route. "This year there have been vast improvements in a lot of areas. We still have a lot to do though. I am impressed with how the THA was able to fix the roads in Charlotteville. Two weeks ago, the roads were in terrible conditions. We had to make changes to the course at the last minute which worked out well."
International Cycling Union (UCI) executive president Pat Quaid was present for the race along with UCI's technical advisor for the Americas Pierre Hutsebaut and Dorothy Abbott, UCI's president of the Commissaire Panel. Mc Quaid said, "The race was good and it was great to see a Caribbean rider winning against some of the top teams coming from Europe. The course is beautiful, extremely difficult and very challenging for the riders. It is as hard a course you will get anywhere in the world." McQuaid, who is from Dublin, Ireland, said that the races will help to market Tobago. "It was good to promote the island of Tobago. ESPN was there taking aerial shots of the race. I am sure there are some good images of this race on the television. "This race reminds me of other races in the Philipines and Malaysia. We worked with the locals in the early days, developing their skills and technical abilities so that they could run the race on their own. It takes some years to do that. It is not something you learn overnight or can read in a book."
Trinidad and Tobago Cycling Federation president Rowena Williams also praised the organisers. "This year, we had a much improved event. The organisers corrected the errors from last year to have the race at a much higher level for the UCI. I think we did very well. We got the okay from the UCI that things did improve. This year was a lot more organised." Brian Luces was the top local rider in the UCI 1.2 Tour and also in the Four-Stage Classic.
Results-UCI 1.2 Tour of Tobago
Position Country Team Time
1 Darren Matthews Barbados Team Coco 3:46:06
2 Andrew Bajadali USA Optum 3:46:06
3 Michael Cumming Great Britain Rapha Condor 3:46:06
4 Luke Givell-Mellor Great Britain Rapha Condor 3:50:38
5 Josh Yeaton USA Rio Grande 3:52:30
6 Kristian House Great Britain Rapha Condor 3:52:30
7 Lukas Stoiber Austria Vita Malt 3:52:30
8 Benjamin Stark Germany Viner Don.
14 Stuart Maloney Barbados Team Coco 4:10:14
17 Barry Luces T&T Vita Malt 4:13:19
