{"id":313980,"date":"2019-12-13T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T20:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=313980"},"modified":"2019-12-13T06:00:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T20:00:14","slug":"127-join-hell-of-marianas-century-cycle-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/127-join-hell-of-marianas-century-cycle-race\/","title":{"rendered":"127 join Hell of Marianas Century Cycle Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-313980 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/127-join-hell-of-marianas-century-cycle-race\/hell-4\/'>hell-4<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-313981'>\n\t\t\t\tThe CNMI\u2019s Russ Quinn, right, nears the peak of Suicide Cliff. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/127-join-hell-of-marianas-century-cycle-race\/hell1-6\/'>hell1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-313982'>\n\t\t\t\tBikers head out to the course during last Saturday\u2019s Hell of Marianas Century Cycle Race. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/127-join-hell-of-marianas-century-cycle-race\/hell2-6\/'>hell2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-313983'>\n\t\t\t\tOff-island bikers pose for a group photo at the starting line of last Saturday\u2019s Hell of Marianas Century Cycle Race at the former Mariana Resort &amp; Spa. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/127-join-hell-of-marianas-century-cycle-race\/hell3-5\/'>hell3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-313984'>\n\t\t\t\tCyclists pass by Suicide Cliff during last Saturday\u2019s Hell of Marianas Century Cycle Race.  (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Last Saturday\u2019s Hell of Marianas Century Cycle Race drew 127 bikers from 11 countries and territories.<\/p>\n<p>The event, organized by the Marianas Visitors Authority and Northern Mariana Islands Cycling Federation, kicked off with a shotgun start right before a brilliant tropical sunrise. <\/p>\n<p>Australia\u2019s Kevin Biffiger went on to top the 100-kilometer race around the island and win the men\u2019s pro category after clocking in at 2:57:02. Guam\u2019s Laura Nadeau (3:27:55) ruled the women\u2019s pro division.<\/p>\n<p>Biffiger was followed by Marko Pavlic (3:01:43) of Slovenia and Toshiki Nagatsuka (3:15:45) of Japan, while Yasue Nakahara (3:36:05) of Japan and Kylie Adair (3:36:47) of Australia joined Nadeau in the Top 3. The top finisher from the CNMI was Joel Buco (3:43:35), who also placed first in the men\u2019s 50 to 54 age group. Other competitors were from Hong Kong, Korea, Slovakia, and Taiwan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year\u2019s Hell of The Marianas is a reboot following the cancellation of last year\u2019s event after Super Typhoon Yutu, and we are satisfied with the turnout,\u201d said MVA managing director Priscilla M. Iakopo. \u201cThe fact that we had bikers from 11 countries shows there is awareness and interest in the event, which we will continue to build on in partnership with the NMI Cycling Federation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Seventeen pro riders joined the event. Competitors experienced Micronesia\u2019s most challenging 100K cycling course, highlighted by the untapped natural beauty of Saipan at its most distinguished attractions, including Suicide Cliff, Bird Island Lookout and Banzai Cliff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were excited that we doubled the number of off-island female pro participants and look forward to increasing this trend,\u201d said NMICF president Vince Seman. \u201cWe promised the women that we will all bring them back next year if they promised to bring more female competitors, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sponsors of the event were Fiesta Resort &amp; Spa Saipan, DFS\/TGalleria, Tan Siu Lin Foundation, Marpac Incorporated, Powerade, Triple J, IT&amp;E, Island Training Solutions, Bridge Capital LLC, Hyatt Regency, Bike Fix Guam, Saipan Apparel, Magic 100FM, and TRAC. The event was also supported by Neo Timing System of Japan, Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office, and Department of Fire and Emergency Services. <strong>(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Saturday\u2019s Hell of Marianas Century Cycle Race drew 127 bikers from 11 countries and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":306181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}