BY DEAN GREENAWAY

A five-man team will represent the BVI at Sunday and Monday's Caribbean Cycling Championships in St. Vincent. The BVI Cycling Federation has selected national champion Phillippe Leroy, Darel Christopher, Conrad Emmanuel, Jaron Maduro and Neil Thomas for the two day event. Christopher and Maduro will compete in Sunday's 16 mile time trial and all five will ride in Monday's 75 mile road race.

Federation president David Thomas said the team's aim is to be competitive. "It's more of a learning trip for us actually having a five man team this year, because there's only Maduro who rode last year when we went for the very first time," Thomas explained. "These guys will have to learn everything they can. I think from the Jason Bally race, we realize that we still have a lot more work to do. We know that we can compete. It will just be hanging in there and see if we can survive with the Caribbean's best." Thomas said the recent Jason Bally race was a perfect indication of what the race speeds would be like. Bermuda's Chris Hedges who won the Bally race is the three time defending Caribbean Cycling champion. "It doesn't get any slower than what it did during that weekend. We learnt that we can actually sit in the group and hang out with the best of them," Thomas noted. "It all depends how on how the guys feel that day, if somebody is feeling really strong and they want to go, then we may try something. If we see the opportunity, I'll give them the green light to go ahead and do it. But, for the most part I think we need to go in there and learn from how the race develops."

There were mistakes made in the Jason Bally race Thomas says and he's hoping that most of the guys are aware of what they were and go into the championships and be able to capitalize on them. "We know we can't win the race just yet, but in cycling, anything can happen," Thomas said. "For sure we know we can hang in there with the race speeds."

With only two entrants allowed in Sunday's time trial but all five competing in Monday's road race, Thomas says the event will be different. "We'll have two guys who'll probably be tired and three who will be really fresh. It will be interesting to see how the race plays out."