TEAM Drive Phase Sport (DPS) will stage two UCI-approved Class One international cycling events at the National Cycling Centre in Couva next week, with the Speed Paradise kicking off on June 19 before the two-day Carnival of Speed Grand Prix on June 20 and 21.<\/p>\n
The events are expected to draw elite riders, teams, media and fans from several countries, with the focus firmly on UCI points, world ranking movement and qualification for the UCI Track World Championships in Shanghai, China, specifically on Chongming Island. The prestigious event will run from October 14 to October 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
DPS official Robert Farrier said the quality of the line-up is one of the major attractions, particularly with a number of top-ranked riders coming to Trinidad and Tobago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have in store this year is , as usual. good cyclists who are ranked among the top 30 in the world – both sprint men and women and also we have a good crop of endurance women. It (the endurance aspect) has been lacking a little bit in the past couple of editions of the event, but now we have that interest growing in that aspect of the sport. I guess it is also because a lot of women are looking for UCI points for world ranking points to qualify for the World Championships in October.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farrier said the event\u2019s main purpose is to help riders chase ranking points.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the main purpose of the event; that is what attracts a lot of the international riders to the event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the standout entrants is South Korea\u2019s Taeho Choi, the male world junior sprint and keirin champion. Farrier said his presence will be especially valuable for local riders.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it is a good opportunity for our junior riders to see what a world champion looks like, how he performs and that sort of thing. So for the junior riders locally , this is a good opportunity for them to see what it takes to develop yourself in the sport to be a junior world champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The field will also include top female sprinters ranked among the world\u2019s best, a Canadian team of ten riders preparing for the Commonwealth Games, and Belgian star Nikki Degrendele. Farrier said the depth of the entry list should give T&T\u2019s riders a real benchmark.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a good crop of world class cyclist that are world ranked for our local riders to have a first-hand experience of what it takes to reach at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local riders set for Commonwealth and CAC Games selection will also be in action, with only Nicholas Paul unavailable.<\/p>\n
Farrier said: \u201cAll our riders selected for Commonwealth and CAC games would be participating with the exception of Nicholas Paul, he is in Switzerland . All the rest – Kwesi Brown Alexi Ramirez , Teniel Cmapbell, Njisane Phillip, Makaira Wallace, and all other riders vying for selection – will be competing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the event will give the Trinidad and Tobago Cycling Federation selection committee one final opportunity to assess the riders.<\/p>\n
Farrier described the meet as highly competitive and urged the public to attend. \u201cIt is real competition, serious business. This is about everybody trying to showcase their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also noted the event schedule, with six sessions across the weekend. Friday\u2019s Speed Paradise begins at 10 a.m. with qualifying rounds for the sprint and keirin, followed by the finals at 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday\u2019s Carnival of Speed starts at 1 p.m. for qualifying, with finals also set for 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Season tickets are priced at $200, while single-session tickets cost $80. Farrier said, \u201canybody who is interested in seeing good cycling could attend at any session.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also stressed the importance of the meet in the wider UCI calendar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that is different this year from other years is that this event is a key event for UCI points to qualify for the World Championships in October, which is the first Olympic qualifier. Even our riders, Phillip, Browne, they are all between 15-20th in their ranking, they need to be in top 30 to qualify for Worlds, So this is a very important event for them to get UCI points because the cut-off qualification period concludes on September 1, 20026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giveaways are also planned, including a bike from Bike Inn. Tickets for the event are also available at their branches in Chaguanas and Marabella. A stationary bike from Marxx Fitness for Father\u2019s Day will also be on offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEAM Drive Phase Sport (DPS) will stage two UCI-approved Class One international cycling events at the National Cycling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,1337,82],"class_list":["post-728997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}