Vuelta a Cuba - Results, Reporting, Photos, Memories

My beloved Vuelta a Cuba is underway in the Pearl of the Antilles. Despite this being the fourth year since my last ride into Havana, where Borut Božič beat me for the stage win on the line, it feels like just yesterday that I was racing through that beautiful, tragic country. Four years later, and I can still smell the cane fields, taste the guarapo, feel my skin turning not tan, but brown, under the intense tropical heat...feel my heart breaking...

Looks like Cyclingnews.com is posting results and some reports and photos from the Vuelta. Send them an email and encourage them to keep covering this race, and other events throughout Latin America!

In 2005, professional photographer Chris Milliman documented the Vuelta for Bicycling Magazine. While the actual coverage that appeared in Bicycling was worse than anemic and did no justice to Chris's amazing work, visit the archives of his blog for interesting shots and Chris's musing on his first trip to Castro Country. 

Here is some Spanish-language reporting for my non-English speaking readers...

Continua frágil el liderato de la Vuelta Ciclística a Cuba

Santiago de Cuba, 11 feb (AIN) Tras disputadas dos etapas de la XXXV Vuelta Ciclística a Cuba continúan las pocas diferencias entre los punteros, por lo que el liderato sigue frágil para hoy, fecha en la se espera reacción cubana.

Hasta ahora el venezolano Miguel Ubeto y el colombiano Jaime Castañeda han sido los laureados parciales y este último se ubica en la cima de la general individual, en la que aparece tercero Raúl Granjel como el mejor cubano, detrás del bolivariano Wilmen Bravo.

La extensa fracción de este jueves, de 185 kilómetros entre esta ciudad y la urbe granmense de Manzanillo, pudiera servir  para que los anfitriones se desquiten y rubriquen su primera sonrisa, pero tendrán nuevamente la resistencia de los ciclistas foráneos, protagonistas hasta este miércoles.

El segmento incluye un premio de montaña, categoría C, en Puerto Moya (kilómetro 21) y tres metas volantes en Palma Soriano (45), Contramaestre (78), y Bayamo (125).

Las rayas intermedias más disputadas serán la inicial y la tercera, que además de puntos otorga bonificaciones en tiempo para los tres primeros y pudieran definir a la postre un sitio en el listado individual.
Castañeda reina también en la regularidad, sin embargo cedió ayer la punta de las líneas intermedias para darle paso al universitario Jans Carlos Arias.

El espirituano Yoel Solensal buscará reafirmación como rey de la montaña, al igual que Rafael Arrate, del Centro Técnico Oriental, pero entre los menores de 23 años de edad, y Cuba por colectivos.
En la etapa que se disputará hoy, tradicionalmente calurosa y fatigosa para los ciclistas, se han coronado tres visitantes y dos cubanos en las cinco ediciones anteriores.

La Vuelta Ciclística a Cuba concluirá el venidero día 21, en la capital del país, y actualmente ruedan 129 valientes de los 133 que partieron desde Baracoa el pasado martes.

(Tomado de AIN/ Escrito por Dania Pérez Serrano)

Cycling Inquisition - Latin America

Recently published is this interview I gave to Cycling Inquisition, which primarily focuses on my experiences racing in Latin America. Thanks to Lucho for the opportunity to share some great memories with his readers. Excerpt below.

"Joe Papp is known by many for having been a key witness in the Floyd Landis USADA arbitration hearing. Papp was called on during that hearing because of his experience with taking testosterone as a cyclist. While that portion of Papp's career is of great interest to some, I think it's been well documented already (see here and here). As such, I felt that there were other things that I'd rather ask him about. Plus, as I've stated before, the subject of doping is not of great interest to me, particularly when more important topics like De Vlaeminck's hair plugs can be discussed. As a matter of fact, I can tell you that my mental list of things I'd rather not do reads like this:

1. I don't want to discuss doping, it's more boring than listening to Sean Kelly do race commentary

2. I don't want to split my scrotum in half while trying to hop over a parking meter, I suspect it would be more painful than listening to Sean Kelly do race commentary

3. I don't want to sniff Sean Kelly's freshly used chamois, because I fear that it will actually be more pleasant and exciting than listening to him do race commentary.

Even if we put my list aside for a second, I feel that the mere mention of doping seems to bring out the uninformed, as well as the (seemingly over-informed) conspiracy theorists. You see, my interest in Papp's career is based on his ample experience racing in Latin America, which I find to be highly unusual for an American cyclist. After all, how many American cyclists can say they've been to Cuba, let alone raced the Vuelta A Cuba five times? Although I'm Colombian, I know little about the inner workings of races in South America, and I imagine that few people in the English speaking world do. Joe is certainly unusual in that respect, and I thought others would enjoy his insights and observations. Some of you may think that interviewing Joe and not asking him lots of questions about doping would be like:

Interviewing Michael Jordan and not asking him about basketball, or

Interviewing the singer from the Crash Test Dummies and not asking him about their groundbreaking and inspirational hit "Mmm, Mmm, Mmm" , or

Interviewing Miguel Indurain and not asking him about his Muppet-like unibrow.

If that's your opinion, you're entitled to it...but you're also wrong. Because I said so.

Also of interest to me, I must admit, are Joe's efforts to be reunited with his Cuban wife (who is also a cyclist). It's a complicated subject, since politics, travel restrictions and general international craziness are a huge factor in any dealing with Cuba and Cuban citizens. Having lived in southern Florida around plenty of Cubans, I can tell you that prior to September 11, Cubans were perhaps the only people in the world who had a harder time traveling than us Colombians. For us, getting a visa in order to take a vacation in the US (or pretty much any other country) could take up to a year, and that's if you got approved. Few ever did. Cubans had it worse, and they never even stood a chance, and still don't.

So, in my attempt to continuously shed some light on the subject of Latin American cycling, I contacted Joe to ask him a few questions. I'd like to thank him for agreeing to do the interview."

Read the complete interview here.