Globe Riders: the past, the present and the future of cycling in Trinidad and Tobago

Our Globe Riders series moves to Trinidad and Tobago

Our Globe Riders series moves to Trinidad and Tobago, where a UCI World Cycling Centre Continental Satellite opened last week in Couva, 40km from the country’s capital Port of Spain.

The mission of the UCI WCC Continental Satellite in Couva is to help develop cycling in the whole Caribbean region through regular training camps for athletes and courses for cycling’s different professions.

It is a major development project of which the President of the Trinidad and Tobago Cycling Federation Rowena Williams is especially proud: “Trinidad and Tobago is the country people in the Caribbean look up to. We have a rich history in cycling. From the 1950s when the National Federation was formed, we have been able to medal in major events, such as the Pan Am Games, the Commonwealth Games, you name it. The only event where we have not yet broken barriers is the Olympics. But it’s coming, I know it’s coming.”

Let’s take a look at some of the names that have helped forge Trinidad and Tobago’s reputation as one of the forces of cycling in the Caribbean.

Trinidad and Tobago’s cycling greats

Part of the current generation of cyclists who are making the cycling world sit up and take notice of Trinidad and Tobago are Nicholas Paul and Teniel Campbell.

On the track, Paul is world record holder in the 200m flying start, silver medallist in the kilo at the 2021 UCI World Championships and 2022 Commonwealth Champion in the keirin.

Campbell is a member of UCI Women’s WorldTeam, Team BikeExchange Jayco. She finished 7th in the individual time trial at the Commonwealth Games this year, but also shines on the track. Between them, Paul and Campbell won six medals – including four gold – at the 2022 Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Lima, Peru. Campbell’s brother Akil won silver in the Scratch, while Kwesi Browne and Zion Pulido were part of Paul’s victorious sprint team.

Not bad, for a country that has a population of less than 1.5 million, and just 250 licensed riders across the disciplines of road, track and mountain bike.

Nicholas Paul, Teniel Campbell and Kwesi Browne came through the UCI WCC training programme in Aigle, Switzerland. Paul remains at the Centre in the lead-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where he intends to go better than his 6th place in the kilo at Tokyo 2020.

And where his Federation’s President dearly believes Trinidad and Tobago’s elusive Olympic medal could come to fruition.

Trinidad & Tobago went close, very close, to that Olympic medal at the Los Angeles 1984 Games when a certain Gene Samuel finished 4th on the track in the kilo, a specialty in which he earned the bronze medal at the UCI Track World Championships in 1991.

Sixteen years earlier, Roger Gibbon had finished 5th in the kilo at the Mexico 1968 Olympic Games, two years after winning double gold on the track at the Commonwealth Games (individual sprint and kilo).

Until Nicholas Paul’s keirin victory this year, Gibbon was still the only cyclist from Trinidad & Tobago to have won Commonwealth gold.

Closer to Nicholas Paul’s generation is Njisane Phillip, fourth in the individual sprint at the London 2012 Olympic Games when he was just 21 years old. Another near miss for Trinidad & Tobago. Phillip is now working as National Coach to help develop the coming generation of cyclists in the country.

Rowena Williams says all the country’s successful athletes are acting as catalysts for Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean: “The young ones want to emulate them. I think Njisane started the ball rolling. What he accomplished in London 2012 at that age and being able to show the world that we have the talent was a motivation. Teniel is a model for women throughout the Caribbean and does a great deal to push and motivate them.

“As for Nicholas, when he broke the world record, he really got a lot of recognition. Before then, people didn’t know the real extent of skills. Then at the 2020 Olympics his following just exploded.”

Cycling at all levels

Track is undisputedly the number one cycling discipline in Trinidad and Tobago, with events held throughout the year, including the Easter Grand Prix which attracts international athletes.

On the road, the Tobago Cycling Classic has a 34-year history and also sees foreign riders make the trip for the sun and festival atmosphere. It often serves as a gauge in the process of selecting the national team.

It is not only the competitive side of the sport that is blooming in Trinidad and Tobago. Rowena Williams is delighted by the general cycling culture that reigns in the country: “It’s really encouraging to see the number of persons so interested in cycling. We have a lot of non-competitors on bicycles, and we see a lot more people on the roads riding to keep fit and out riding for fun.”

Every weekend, fun rides and wellness rides are organised across the country, most of them under the umbrella of the Federation.

Cycling hub

But one of the big focuses from 2023 will be the new UCI WCC Continental Satellite.

At the opening on 3 December, UCI WCC Director Jacques Landry explained: “The UCI World Cycling Centre’s Satellites are vital elements in our mission to develop cycling and cyclists in all regions of the world. They carry out important work when it comes to the detection, training, and preparation of athletes wishing to pursue their sport at the highest level, as well as the training of people wanting to work in cycling-related fields.”

Rowena Williams embraces Trinidad and Tobago’s role in the UCI WCC’s development mission: “Our centre will be fully functional from 2023 with ongoing programmes, camps and training for coaches, mechanics and Commissaires,” she says. “It will be a hub for these things to happen, and that will be my focus for the next five years at least.”