31 July 2017
This Sunday was the annual Competencia
Ciclista Curahuasi Circuito del Anís (circuit of the aniseed) run by the Municipalidad de
Curahuasi. We only found out about this
race a bit over a week ago - normal notice for these parts! J But also incredible for us that our little home town hosts a road bike race.
Ironically the street circuit was around our church, Morada
de Dios in downtown Curahuasi. So being
a Sunday morning race, our pastor Tomas was out the front and prayed for Sam
before racing which was great.
As background - Sam has kept his road cycling training up
including some decent hill gains such as our nearby Abancay climb (rising from
2,650m to 3,950m ASL) and so he was in good form to win his age group 14 a 17 years
(10 laps of the town circuit). But
that’s not all as immediately following this race and to the surprise of many,
he enrolled into the next race which commenced only minutes later. This was the over 18 age group (25 laps of
the town circuit). Then to everyone’s
amazement – he won this race also! It
was a hard ride with the lack of oxygen at these altitudes. But he was awarded two “gold” medals and also
won S/. 350 in prize money.
Sam’s training by Helmut Vetisch of the North Sydney Cycle
Club Juniors along with many a club race with NSCC gave Sam a distinct
advantage combined with his continued training regime. As Sam later noted, cornering, bike handling
and mature race tactics learnt from Helmut was key to putting him in front of
the locals.
The competition was road cycling teams from Cusco and
Abancay. Sadly one rider from Curahuasi
hit a stray dog (of which there were a number per normal in our town) and
crashed hard, unfortunately removing him from the race. A fellow rider who is a German missionary and
strong mountain biker, Nathaniel, also raced, albeit on my bike as he does not
own a road bike but Sam dropped him early in the second race. Why did I not race you might ask? OK I was feeling crook so I agreed to loan my
bike to him – just this once! J
A funny thing of note - they use loo paper as the finishing
tape. Very resourceful for their low
rural budget.
Incidentally our Solomon (6 years) also raced in his age
group, but due to low numbers on the day they combined the 6 to 8 years (años) and
8 to 13 years age groups. So he was
handicapped in age and lack of riding experience. This was good for him to come back to next
year though. Maybe I will be ready to
race in the over 18 grade – although Sam too will surely be back a year stronger.
Many Perú friends joined us also, including our housekeeper
Rocita and her son Luis, two of our landlords with their 85 year old mum, and
one of my workmates with his wife and young kids. Sandi and I were obviously very proud
parents!
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| Here is the Curahuasi council (Municipilidad) registration tent at the start and finish line. |
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| Sam warms up on his rollers in front of our Perú church. This is not a common sight in Curahuasi or Perú for that matter. |
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| Sam takes out his first race breaking the “tape” with good margin. |
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| Here is the line-up for the over 18 age group. |
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| The over 18 group is a tougher challenge. |
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| Post Sam’s second win – we pose for a family portrait with our Perú pastor, Tomas. |
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| The podium medalists for the over 18s. |
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| A proud mum and dad on the day with the champion (and as seen on Sandi’s face - the sun was pretty intense!). |
Here is the link to a Diospi Suyana post by Klaus (in
English) on this event with my photos;
Signed - a proud Mum and Dad,
Sandi & Chris
grt
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