With a significant increase in participation, this year’s staging of the Jamaica International Cycling Classic is expected to deepen its role as a major driver for the growth and development of competitive cycling in Jamaica and across the region.

The event, which runs from April 4-6, is expected to feature well over 80 riders from 14 teams — up from the seven that competed in 2024 — with riders travelling from countries in Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Carlton Simmonds, president of Simmonds High Velocity Cycling Club, the organisation behind the event, believes the increase in competitors also augers well for the country’s reputation in the international cycling community and provides an opportunity not just for local riders to be exposed to high-level competition, but also for the sharing of technical expertise from international officiating crew.

“We’ll be getting a wider reach of athletes that will be coming to do the Classics. So we’re looking at riders coming from the US, Honduras, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Puerto Rico, Canada, Cayman Island, Trinidad and Tobago, Netherlands, Brazil, Belgium, Great Britain, Costa Rica, and Grenada,” said Simmonds.

“I think it speaks volumes to the ratification that it has on the international calendar and with what I deem the settling down of the International calendar, it speaks to the interest that it is going to garner in the future, and I also think it speaks well for cycling not just in Jamaica, but in the Caribbean, because the region will be exposed to top flight, professional cycling,” added Simmonds.

Now in its fourth year, the Jamaica International Cycling Classic will again be contested along Jamaica’s north coast, with each stage starting and ending at Whitter Village in Montego Bay.

The three-stage event will also see an increase in distance, with the 65-miles long opening stage moving from Whitter Village to Falmouth, before looping at the bridge in Falmouth, and heading back to Rose Hall. This will be done three times, ending at Whitter Village.

Stage Two leaves Whitter Village and heads to the Discovery Bay Ferry Pier and back to Whitter Village, while the third and final stage will see riders leave Whitter Village and head to Duncans, where they will be doing three loops, through the town of Duncans, and then race back to Whitter Village.

“We’ll also be having some King of the Mountain prizes on offer,” Simmonds shared. “The event is now going to see a top Under-23 and general classification prize structure. There are also going to be (prizes) for the top local rider on GC. That will be added to the event to make it more rounded and robust and more competitive.”

In addition to raising the profile of the sport in Jamaica, Simmonds expects the Classic to play a role in encouraging more recreational riding and believes the sport has potential to push sports tourism in the country.

“I think the event has opened the doors for more conversation around not just the event itself, but Jamaica as a whole as a destination for cycling. So even the recreational side of it has grown immensely, and we now have more people riding bikes in Jamaica than, say, three or four years ago,” Simmonds said.

“So I think it will help, and it will continue to help, in promoting Brand Jamaica, in developing the local competitive side of the sport, because what it does now, it opens the eyes to a lot of youngsters who might be seeing it and want to be a part of it and see cycling as a sport that they want to be a part of.”

— Andre Lowe