Track & Field
Scouting for a Professional Mountain Bike Race in Haiti
- Tuesday, Juin 12, 2012 24:50
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) - Haiti may be extending its media coverage to ESPN as a team of Americans and a trail specialist from the International Mountain Biking Association are scouting out the mountains of Furcy to host a professional mountain bike race in February 2013.
Jayme Moye of National Geographic is with the group and is documenting the scouting trip led by Philip Kiracofe an Ironman triathlete.
The Haiti Acent Mountain Bike Stage Race, as it is called, will seek to attract at least 50 elite cyclist to race 30 miles across the Chaine de la Selle, Haiti's tallest mountain range topping at 9,000 feet above sea-level.
In the coming months Kiracofe and his team believe that Haiti has the trails that are "pro cyclist-caliber". Kiracofe wrote in 2011:
Whether you are a hard-core mountain biker, an adventurous historian, or just someone who likes to explore *truly* off the beaten path, here is an experience that will live with you forever.
...Haiti – literally “Land of Mountains.” It is one of the least explored countries in the western hemisphere, and offers thousands of miles of epic trails for hiking, climbing and mountain biking.
