Cayman has scored a major sports tourism coup with the news that one of the world’s top cycling teams will host its first get-together for the 2011 season in Grand Cayman.

The team, currently known as Garmin-Transitions, is one of the top professional cycling teams in the world and will be the home of newly crowned world champion and former Tour de France points jersey champion Thor Hushovd for the 2011 season. It was announced earlier this year that Hushovd’s current team, Cervelo Test Team, would cease to exist at the end of the 2010 season and merge with Garmin-Transitions to create a new team, provisionally referred to as Garmin-Cervelo. Mr. Hushovd announced during an interview that the first get- together for the new team would take place in the Cayman Islands next month.

The staging of the event has great sports tourism implications for the Cayman Islands, as professional cycling teams like Garmin-Transitions consist of up to 30 cyclists as well as many support staff.

“It’s a great thing that one of the world’s top cycling teams are bringing people from all around the world to Cayman. They could have held this camp anywhere, but they chose Cayman,” said Tom McCallum, the local organiser of the event.

Mr. McCallum, a well-known leading light in local tourism circles, became involved in cycling recently and immediately spotted the sports tourism potential.

A number of riders from the Garmin-Transitions team, including Christian Vande Velde, fourth place finisher in the 2008 Tour de France, and Pete Stetina, have visited Cayman before for events organised by the Cayman Islands Cycling Association, and many of them have maintained friendships with members of the local cycling community.

“Pete came down to ride the Reefathlon last year, and after that I asked Pete about bringing some more team cyclists down to promote cycling. He suggested we could always try to organise a training camp in Cayman,” said Mr. McCallum.

When the news broke of the merger between Garmin-Transitions and the Cervelo Test Team, it did not take long for Jonathan Vaughters, the sporting director for the Garmin-Transitions team, to pick his spot for the training camp.

“When the team merger was announced, literally the next day I received a Twitter message from Jonathan Vaughters asking whether we could pull this off,” said Mr. McCallum.

This left Mr. McCallum with very little time to put the event together.

“We managed to get Team Cayman together in just a week, with support from the Department of Tourism, local industry partners and the Cayman Islands Cycling Association,” said Mr. McCallum.

Mr. Vaughters was quite excited about the prospect of the first team training camp being hosted in Cayman,

“Some of our riders have vacationed and taken part in rides in Cayman in the past and spoken enthusiastically of their experiences,” said Mr. Vaughters.

“We felt that Cayman presented an excellent choice of location to bring our team from around the world to meet up and get to know each other better, on and off the bike, before the start of the 2011 season.”

The core of the Garmin-Transitions team comes from the United States, traditionally a very important market for the Cayman Islands. However, the team has a distinctly international flavour and includes cyclists from countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Norway and Germany.

As part of the team merger, the new squad will be riding Cervelo bicycles in the 2011 season, and members will receive their new bicycles at the Cayman camp. This means that the team will ship bicycles for all the cyclists to Cayman, as well as bring their team mechanics to do the bike fitting and assembly for team members.

The training camp will start on 28 November, with public events planned for 2 December, including a ride and race with the members of the team, as well as a meet-and-greet session and a charity auction. The auction will include a selection of unique team gear and memorabilia donated by the team.

The event is also set to draw extensive media coverage, with select members of the international media and well-known cycling publications expected to attend.

For more information, visit caymancycling.com