Cycling currently off-track, says Forde

The glory days of cycling seems a forgotten memory and former racing secretary and long-serving cycling coach Colin Forde believes the future of cycling in Barbados is presently not bright.

Forde told Barbados TODAY that there was a long way to go for cycling to improve in Barbados and that even thoughts of competing at the Olympic Games were just as distant.

“Let me tell you now, we won’t have a rider for the Olympics for a long time because the standard of our riders is not there. There are one or two riders doing reasonably well but we have always had several riders from junior level right up to the senior level that we could choose from and look at. Those riders coming up at some point in time represented Barbados at both levels. We do not have that right now,” he said.

One of the biggest indicators of the drop-off in the quality of the sport in Barbados, he suggested, was the age range of the pool of cyclists available.

“We have a lot of ageing riders, no disrespect to them, but most of our riders are forty and over. We cannot go to any [Olympic] Games unless we are going to Masters with riders that old. So our Cycling Union must develop a strong youth programme. It is a known fact made known to the Union by a lot of people and it is up to them to do something about it,” Forde said.

Forde, who spent many years as an administrator in the Barbados Cycle Union, said that association must find a way to prioritise track cycling if the sport is to improve locally. But he added he recognised there has been some push back against it.

“The success we have had in cycling over the years had come from track, not from road. We just had some medals at the Pan American games, and they are from track races. Our track is not the best, but it is enough to start a developmental programme. We have been fighting with this for two to three years and we have not been able to get it started. The Caribbean has only been successful in cycling in track racing and that is the route the Barbados Cycling Union must go. Yes, we must have a few road races for those who do not like track racing, but most of the riders do like the track,” he suggested.

Barbados has a history of winning medals in track cycle events. Barry Forde won a gold medal in the 2002 and 2005 Pan American Cycling Championships sprint event and a bronze medal in the 2002 Commonwealth Games sprint event.

Racing Secretary of the Barbados Cycling Union Dr Adrian Sealy has been trying to put together a track programme in recent times, but it has not got off the ground as yet.