It's pretty much a part of the Easter Celebration, and today the President of the Cycling Federation of Belize told us about the preparations they've made for it this year. We couldn't help but notice how excited he was about Saturday's race:

Dion Leslie - President, Cycling Federation of Belize
"We are on the brink of having a Belizean win 3 consecutive times, so you now all of that coupled in with just the overall hype and the fact that cross country is something that is embedded in the DNA of every single Belizean because your Easter vacation does not start until cross country is finish, you can't eat, you can't drink, you can't do anything until you heard the end of cross country and so it's something that we are all excited about and we know this year will be exciting, not only because of the prizes that we've gathered but because of the competition coming, both the foreigners coming in and the level where our local riders are right now, we expect it to be exciting, fast dynamic race filled with surprises throughout the entire 140 plus miles."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, it's always as you say an issue where Belizeans want to see a Belizean win of course and if that Belizean is the best rider on the road that day it happens. But how prepared are we? Do you think this crop of Belizean cyclist is for the international competition?"

Dion Leslie
"I personally from what I see on the road, we are really prepared. It was our goal as the executive to have more races. You can work out every day but being race ready is something else. It was our goal to have as much races as possible leading up to cross country so that our riders get into what we called race-condition. Not only races itself, if you've notice we've done a lot of crates which helps the riders maintain a high speed for a longer extended period of time which usually in cross country passed you would see foreigners come in, they would lift the pace to maybe 35-38 miles per hour for an extended period of time and that's where you see Belizeans would start to let go, could not keep up and we see our riders this year with the races, with the type of training they put in that they are at that level now and we expect a great showing from our riders and I personally believe that a Belizean will win the 86th Cross Country."

And as we've told you, the Cross Country is part of the Belizean Tradition. That's exactly the name that the Cycling Federation chose for their cycling magazine. Dion Leslie explained today why they want you to support them by buying it for only 10 dollars.

Dion Leslie - President, Cycling Federation of Belize
"I've been saying that tradition is the key word for this cross country because when the executive got together and we formed the committee it's something that we highlighted - we wanted to bring back a lot of traditions that were last in the past; the magazine being one of them and it's on sale. You can get it from any executive member. You can get it from Sky Supermarket in Ladyville, Ramon's Service Station or from the NOC office upstairs of Dooneys on Albert Street. Its $10 for the magazine and like I said if you meet any members of the executive we have them on us and we are trying to sell them, it's a little fund raising that we do for the federation because we are a non-profit organization but we still have to foot the bill for our national team to travel to various competitions around the world, so any little bit helps. But tradition and I want to stick with that word because we are bringing back the parade which will be tomorrow from 4:30 and it will go through the principal streets of Belize City and its something to highlight the riders who are here, highlight the foreigners, highlight the sponsors. I compare it best to when an international artist is coming in people want to see the artist. It's the same way the fans want to see which foreigners are here, they hear this one might be coming in, they want to see if that person really got here. They want to see which one of their favorite Belizean riders is riding with which team, if he is in shape and which team mates, so the parade will be that to promote the race, to promote the sponsors and to promote the federation and the sport on a whole."

And we'll be out there for that parade tomorrow where we'll show you a glimpse the riders who will be competing. Be sure to tune in and see them in action in our last newscast before the Easter Weekend.