The Ruta Maya started on Friday in San Ignacio, wended its way down the Macal and Belize Rivers, and culminated in Belize City on Monday, a formidable 186 miles later.
IT was a dramatic finish as the repeat winners, the Zip Rider team, faced a last second flurry from perennial contenders Belize Bank - here's how the finish looked:…
Jerry Rhaburn, Discovery Exp./Zip Rider/Caves Branch
"Well it was a pretty exciting finish, we tried our best, we didn't finish first place but we finish first overall and we were the defending champion and we are still the champ so, but it was a nice finish, it was a nice sprint and we had a little accident out there and I think most of the spectators saw that but we didn't make that keep us from being friends. We are friends with the Belize Bank team and that's not going to change."
Shane Williams, Guardian
"Some of your team members were upset by the Belize Bank move. Tell us what Belize Bank did at the end of the race."
Jerry Rhaburn, Discovery Exp./Zip Rider/Caves Branch
"Actually they cut across in front of us and we had more space on the right hand side of the river. We were on the left and they just cut us across and we wanted to sprint for the finish, we wanted to give the fans a nice finish. We wanted to finish first place today but like I said we didn't finish first but we finished first overall so that's all that matters. We trained for 4 months and starting next week - I saw the sport like it's getting a little bit slow, so start next week I am going to start doing some training for younger teams like the schools and stuff like that because I want this race to go into the schools because that's the only way we are going to have faster paddlers. I took a lot of things from this guy right here. He teach me a lot of stuff, so I want to extend my education to more younger paddlers that's why I am going to start next week. I am going to start doing some seminar in Burrell Boom Village. If anybody want to get in contact with me they can call my number 624-1279."
Bob Vinson, Trainer
"That's why we came - to teach these people how to paddle and we are very old but we come back and keep teaching them and they are doing a great job now."
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