My dad was preparing for the Caribbean championship time trial. I was up the hill timing him. After a while, he wasn’t coming. Then some driver came by and said a cyclist was hit by a truck. I was like, huh? So, I went down the road and saw him on the ground. He couldn’t move. I was in shock…in tears…how was this possible?
This cherry picker truck came across and just slammed him – bam. His whole left side was crushed. His left leg was broken into three places. His spinal cord was stretched. The doctors said he won’t be able to walk again. Ever.
I was still in high school so I would go to school only for half a day so I could take care of him. I would take care of him in the morning and go to school in the afternoon or take the morning shift at school so I could see him in the afternoon, back and forth. A little child had more muscles and nerves than him. The only thing he could do was move his neck. He had to start over.
When I was a little kid, I would see my dad riding and riding. He was a firefighter. I was an active kid. He told me when I was 2 years old, he gave me a bike – no training wheels. And I did it. I rode, with no training wheels. Nothing. 2 years old. Ever since I was a little kid, I was watching these guys in the Tour de France, Miguel Indurain etc. My dad told me this story about how when I was 5 years old, I told him I am going to be there one day, in the world championships.
Since 2018 began, my goal was to qualify for the world championships in Innsbruck. Two weeks before the race, I made it. It was last minute, but it doesn’t matter. I knew for sure I was doing the race.
Darel Christopher and Darel Christopher Jr. were presented with the UCI’s recognition of the British Virgin Islands as a federation
The time trial is a specialized discipline that you have to train for and do specific workouts. My goal was actually to make the road race so I was training for that. I would go out twice a day. I’d do 107 – 110 miles in the morning then race on the velodrome that night. And I’ll do that back to back days.
Since I qualified so late for the TT only, everything was last minute. I didn’t have a time trial bike to use. I thought, oh oh, this is not good. So a bike shop owner said “hey come on, I’ll give you a ride to use. I’ve known you for two years and you’re cool, we can’t get you riding a regular bike with some clip-on bars, let’s get you set up right”. So I was on the TT bike for a week and a half before the championships.
The helmet I used was an old teammates helmet, I tried it on and everything was fine. But in the race, once the sweat started dripping, it got in my face and I couldn’t see nothing. I had to use one hand to keep the helmet up so I could just see straight. There were two or three times I almost went off the road because of this. To add to that, how the cables were set up, going into the frame, the vibrations were pushing the cables which meant the brakes were rubbing against the tire. I was pushing up the cable with my other hand and I kept losing more and more time. Eventually I thought, just forget it, leave the cable and just continue riding. It was touching the wheel and there was nothing I could do.
Photo: Jan Hetfleisch
I just kept going because being on the start line and hearing them calling my name and the crowd cheering was an unbelievable experience. It felt great. So despite what was happening to me on the course, I started smiling. Everyone was so encouraging. It was amazing. I took it all in. I kept hearing “Go BVI.” Here I was, the first rider to ever represent the British Virgin Islands in the world championships.
Within a year of my dad’s accident, he was walking. He keeps saying he is going to walk again without crutches and that he’ll be back on the bike. He never stops trying. He keeps going. He has a stationary bike at home and gets on that and just keeps going. I think back to him and his struggles. He never gives up so why should I give up. I am 100% healthy and he’s starting from the bottom. No matter the obstacles in life, I’m going to keep pushing forever. If it doesn’t work, at least I know I tried and gave it 100%.
Header photo: Jan Hetfleisch
