Top T&T road cyclist Emile Abraham and Oscar Pachon, the winner of the UCI Tour of Tobago event on Sunday are two of many top riders on show at the Beacon Cycling on the Avenue 3 event on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, from 7.30 pm, tonight.
The event will feature many local, regional and international cyclists who competed at the Tobago International Cycling Classic which took place in Tobago from October 2 - Sunday. Abraham will be hoping for a podium finish tonight in the 36-lap main event, after finishing a creditable fourth in the four-stage cycling classic.
Pachon of Colombia will lead the Team Coco's challenge, after the club took three of the top five spots in the 120km Tour of Tobago. Pachon's clubmates Carlos Ospina (Colombia) and Darren Matthews (Barbados) came third and fifth respectively.
Eleven races are on the schedule with sprint and endurance events all starting and ending in the vicinity of Mike's Bikes. The opening race at 7.35 pm will be a 200-metre sprint for invitational and international riders. At approxiamtely 8.50 pm the 36-lap race will close the night's action.
At the event's media conference yesterday at SOHO Restuarant, Ariapita Avenue, American Evan Murphy of Team Foundation said his team was dedicating the event to two individuals who made contributions to the club. Murphy said: "Last year one of our riders Euris Vidal won this race but he passed away last year so it will mean a lot to the team to take the win. We also come to Trinidad and Tobago in memory of Earl Osbourne, he was instrumental in forming our team."
Vidal of the Dominican Republic, who won the main event last year, was unfortunately killed last year in Santiago, Dominican Republic, trying to prevent a robbery. Phillip Promotions, the organisers of the event will have one minute of silence for Vidal.
Team Foundation had 13 riders represented in Tobago and tonight Murphy said the club would be well represented as eight or nine riders are expected to compete including T&T brothers Adam and Joshua Alexander.
The Alexander brothers had a successful outing in New York recently representing Team Foundation. Joshua was looking forward to a challenging event, saying: "It is going to be more competition this year, hearing about the other teams that are expected to compete."
Joshua added that Abraham would be one of the riders to watch: "Emile was on top of his game this year, and he is carrying good form right now."
Juvenile, juniors, masters and senior ladies will also participate tonight.