Tough task for Rodman

Elton Tucker, Assistant Editor - Sport

Cyclist Marloe Rodman's preparations for the October 14-30 Pan American Games have been going quite well, but his manager/coach, former national representative, Arthur Tenn, still thinks things will be very tough for the local rider in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Rodman, Jamaica's lone cycling representative for the Games, and Tenn, will both leave the island just after dawn tomorrow, 10 days before competing in his only event, the 160 kilometres road race.

"We will be getting there early to get acclimatised to the high altitude in Guadalajara," Tenn said on Monday night. The Mexican city is more than 5,000 feet above sea level.

Tenn said the 23-year-old Rodman has done fairly well leading up to the Games as he was among the top 20 riders at the recent Caribbean Cycling Championships in Montego Bay. Before that he was second in the national championships. In May he won the Rotary Club of Montego Bay East Bikeathon Jamaica Challenge, run over a gruelling 74-kilometre course in Ironshore.

Number of unknowns

There are a number of unknowns going into Guadalajara, however, and the manager is keeping his fingers crossed, hoping that Rodman will have 'a good ride'.

"I am not sure what the course is going to be like," said Tenn, who represented Jamaica in the road race at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, California and the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea. He added that the nature of the course (whether it is largely flat or full of climbs) will decide how well his rider performs in the race.

While Rodman will compete in the race with the most up-to-date equipment, Tenn, who also competed at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States, said things had changed since the days he competed.

"In my time it was the South Americans, Colombia in particular, who were dominant, but now things are taking a turn towards the North Americans. The Americans have started to take the sport seriously and have taken a professional approach, especially in terms of equipment. They have gone out and obtained the best equipment possible, changing, for example, from aluminium to carbon fibre cycles which are much lighter."

At the last Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, however, the Colombians were still the leading cycling nation with 10 medals overall (men and women) - four gold, five silver and one bronze ahead of Cuba (4-1-2) and the United States (2-2-1).