German cycling coach supports Barbadian Juniors

German cycling coach Emanuel Raasch, a former East-German track rider, will start a training programme with Junior cyclists in Barbados. Raasch, who is also the personal coach of Barbados' successful track rider Barry Forde, believes that there is a lot of potential in the Caribbean island's youth, and intends to add more colour to international cycling.

"Barry Forde is really the only exotic international rider", Raasch said with the help of an interpreter at a press conference this week. "I hope to bring up some of the junior Barbados riders up to the international level. The Caribbean riders are capable of becoming very good sprinters, just as the established European sprinters."

Fifteen junior cyclists recently took part in a two-day cycling camp under Raasch's guidance, and although the German coach will return to Europe to resume his international schedule, he intends to return to Barbados in February 2006 to help prepare some junior cyclists for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Melbourne, Australia in March. Nevertheless, Raasch knows that results do not come overnight and affirmed that he expected true results only in three to five years.