Ryan Thompson Takes Caribbean Title, Then Bronze From A Belizean Breakaway

The 16-year-old won Saturday’s time trial by more than 40 seconds. On Sunday he was the only rider not from Belize in the four-man move that decided the road race.

By Alric Lindsay

Ryan Thompson has won the junior men’s individual time trial at the Caribbean Junior Road Cycling Championships in Belize and added bronze in Sunday’s road race, the strongest weekend a Caymanian cyclist has had at the regional championships.

Thompson covered Saturday’s 20-kilometre time trial course in 26 minutes 3.44 seconds, at an average of 46.052 kilometres an hour — the only rider in the field of twelve to average better than 45. He finished 41.51 seconds clear of Bermuda’s Jacob Wright, who took silver in 26:44.95, and 1 minute 1.83 seconds ahead of Barbados’ Jonah Kelly, third in 27:05.27.

The margin is one measure. The names behind him are another. Jamaal Tablada finished fourth in 27:48.72 and Keith Enwright Jr fifth in 28:19.26 — the two Belizeans who beat Thompson into third place at the 25th Belize Electricity Limited Junior Cross Country Classic in April, over 76 miles of Belizean road. On Saturday, on the same country’s roads, he put 1:45 and 2:16 into them.

His coach, Ken Gokool, said the ride had been expected. “Heading into the time trial, we were confident Ryan had the winning time in him — his power metrics from testing and a perfectly executed taper guaranteed it,” he said in written comments. Gokool treated the championships as a tune-up for the world championships next month, and said Thompson had nonetheless “delivered the fastest speed on record since official tracking began in 2021.”

Sunday was a harder proposition. The 93.6-kilometre road race broke apart and came down to four riders, and three of them were Belizean. Devyn Major won the sprint in 2 hours 50 minutes 52 seconds, from Enwright Jr, Thompson and Tablada, all given the same time. Kelly was fifth at 3 minutes 22 seconds; Wright, the time trial silver medallist, came in sixth. Of sixteen starters, nine finished: five abandoned and two were eliminated on the time limit.

Being the only outsider in a lead group of four, against three riders from the host nation who could take turns attacking him, is a difficult place for a sixteen-year-old to spend the closing quarter of a race. Thompson held the wheel and took third in the sprint.

Gokool, who said three of the four riders in the lead group were under his coaching, watched it with a coach’s divided interest. “I had a strong sense of how the tactical battle would unfold, but watching it play out was electric,” he said, crediting Thompson with “remarkable skill and composure against older competition.”

That last point is not a courtesy. Thompson was born on 28 October 2009 and is a first-year junior, riding against opponents up to a year further into their physical development — a gap that counts for a great deal at sixteen.

The weekend continues a run that began at these championships a year ago. In Barbados in August 2025, then aged 15, Thompson took silver in the juvenile time trial, riding seven miles in 16 minutes 11 seconds and finishing ten seconds off the winner. Cayman Cycling recorded it as the first medal won by a Caymanian at the Caribbean championships in any category, and called it “a true breakthrough moment for Cayman cycling.” He added bronze in the road race the following day — the same double, a category up and a step higher.

This season has been a step up in class. In March, Thompson rode the Pan-American Continental Championships, finishing 40th in the 120.6-kilometre junior men’s road race and failing to finish the time trial. In June he won both national titles at home, taking the 31-kilometre national time trial in a record 39:23.54 on 20 June and the road race the next day. He rides for the Phoenix team.

What comes next is the largest stage he has ridden on. The UCI Road World Championships are in Montréal from 20 to 27 September — the first road world championships held in North America in a decade — with the junior men’s time trial on 22 September and the junior men’s road race on 24 September. “All eyes are now turned toward his primary objective,” Gokool said.

Junior men’s individual time trial — 22 August 2026, 20km

Junior men’s road race — 23 August 2026, 93.6km

Source: official results, Caribbean Junior Road Cycling Championships, Belize 2026 (COPACI / CCU / Cycling Federation of Belize). Time trial sheet issued 22 August 2026, 09:25; road race sheet issued 23 August 2026, 14:10.