Special Feature

Malta in the San Marino 2001 GSSE

 The Road to San Marino - Cycling

Cycling was one of the original seven disciplines to be included in the first ever edition of the GSSE in San Marino in 1985. Our two cyclists found the going tough and threw in the towel after covering just one third of the circuit as they were lapped by the leading cyclists. Since then Maltese cyclists took part in practically every other edition of the Games with the exception of Monaco (1987) and Iceland (1997).

Cycling is still a very small discipline riddled with major problems particularly rough roads and lack of long stretches of road which are ideal for cyclists to pile up their weekly training mileage. Despite all these setbacks, the Malta Cycling Federation has left no stone unturned in its efforts to provide our leading cyclists with the best possible preparation for the Games.

In San Marino, our hopes will be pinned upon David Galea, Jack Schiavone, Etienne Bonello and Chris Gatt who have been nominated to form the cycling contingent. Galea is undoubtedly the most experienced cyclists of the lot as he was one of the budding cyclists who competed in the first ever Tour of Malta which was held way back in 1990. Schiavone has been fully immersed in this discipline for the past six years whereas Bonello and Gatt are two budding youngsters who have emerged to the limelight in the past two years.

None of our cyclists have ever managed to win a medal at these games and with Luxembourg often fielding professional athletes, the trend is unlikely to be reversed. Yet, the Maltese contingent stands a good chance to break the ice if cycling sensation Dave Millar who was born in Malta in 1977, turns up for our country in San Marino.

Millar is a British professional cyclist who made headline news last year after winning the individual time trial of the Tour De France. Some three weeks ago, Millar won an important race in Paris and his presence at the Games will certainly boost our squad. The Malta Olympic Committee and officials from the Cycling Federation have to conduct some more paper work before Millar's participation is secured.

On the local scene, the cyclists have been following a scheduled training programme engineered by John Miles who is the national coach. The Milton Keynes based coach shuttles to and from this island to ensure that the cyclists are on track. His assistant John Magri monitors the squad's progress.

The national squad can often be seen cycling away around the San Martin circuit as this is similar to the circuit being contested in San Marino. This stretch of road also has the added advantage of not being logged with traffic. Speed training poses more of a problem as our cyclists have to keep a watchful eye for some careless drivers who seem oblivious to the efforts put in by our athletes. Usually, speed training is held at the Coast Road or at Hal-Far.

Apart from the yearly Tour of Malta which is held every year in April, local cyclists experienced some stern tests in three intensive training camps held in Germany, England and Sicily. They also contested various road races with some very good results achieved particularly in Germany.

Cycling will be in action on Tuesday 29th May for the Individual Time Trial which spans a circuit covering 17.4km. The Road race will be held on Saturday 2nd June over a distance of 104.3km which is excepted to take leading cyclists some three hours to complete. The best three placed cyclists of each nation will determine the final placing of the team events.

All the cyclists hailing from other nations, with the exception of Cyprus, enjoy the benefit of competing in various road races on the mainland and side by side with professional cyclists. Maltese cyclists can only experience a taste of such a build-up as transportation problems and our physical isolation from the rest of Europe seriously hampers our potential progress.

Yet, our lads are ready to give their utmost in San Marino and register some very encouraging results.