MARIGOT--With his six-foot-tall lean frame, it is hard to believe Adélio Brooks is only seventeen years old and still a Junior competitive cyclist; that is until the end of this year when he becomes a senior. He is currently on holiday in St. Martin.
As one of the two young breakout stars of the Velo Club de Grand Case (VCG) with Alban Clerc, now 19, the pair have been racing and studying for the past year in France. Since leaving to go back to France in early September 2017, before the hurricanes struck, Brooks has competed in a number of national road races.
When studying becomes a priority (he skipped the Junior Tour of Guadeloupe for that reason) it results in a temporary drop in form, but by and large the racing experience he has gained has been hugely beneficial.
He has accumulated a couple of top 10 finishes in France, no podium finishes but was third best Junior overall in the 31st “Six Jours de Crédit Agricole” in addition to winning the Junior category on the last stage of that event.
Elsewhere he competed in Le Saint Gratien Race; finishing 22nd overall and fourth placed Junior; and at Le Ble D’Or a 160K race, he finished in 62nd place out of 296 participants.
Unlike the Caribbean, Brooks is riding in big races in France with anywhere from 100 to over 200 riders in the peloton, and where juniors are mixed with seniors. It is this kind of experience that is preparing him well for the future.
“I wasn’t intimidated by the number of riders, but the high pace is what you have to adapt to,” he explains. “In Guadeloupe, the riders tend to attack and then slow down but in France it’s a constant high pace which is really hard, but I’ve become accustomed to it.”
It may come as a surprise that Brooks is also hooked on Cyclocross. Typically a European discipline, Cyclocross is a hybrid of mountain biking and road racing. The road bikes do not have suspension but have thicker wheels and racing involves a lot of running and riding over rough terrain, mud, snow, usually in bad weather.
“It is hard core,” he admits. “Actually, I got into it because of not finding a mountain bike my size any more, but I had been watching cyclocross races on YouTube and it looked like fun. Cyclocross races are short, just 50 minutes so you don’t have to spend hours training. It’s short and intense training compared to road cycling which is more about endurance.”
The Cyclocross season runs from August 2018 to June 2019.
Brooks is studying at the Lycée Martin Luther King at Bussy Saint-Georges in the Seine et Marne region outside Paris. His immediate goals in cycling are to continue improving and to be well trained for the 2019 Tour of Guadeloupe.
