And while all that was Thursday....
On Saturday, 119 riders started the 95th Holy Saturday Cross Country Cycling Classic - but for the last 24 miles - it came down to two riders - one British, the other American.
Both of them rode for teams brought to race by Belize's Williams brothers,Corey and Justin - but those team leaders did not make it into the lead group - which established a 4 minute gap on the chase group.
That gap would never be eclipsed and the pair crushed into Belize City - playing an intra-team cat and mouse game to see who would get first and who would get second.
In the end, it was the British Cyclist JimBrown, followed by American Alfredo Bueno:
Jim Brown, Champion - 95th Cross Country
"What a race. I don't think I've ever done a race where it means so much to the people of the place where the race is. It was an honor to do the race and an even bigger honor to win. To be honest, we were hoping that Corey would win because obviously in my team, Blazers, we've got Corey Williams and then there's Justin in Legion."
"We were hoping it was going to be one of them because it's a big event for them, for their family. I know that Calman was in the conference he would have really wanted to see one of his sons to win."
"That was a shame, but if it wasn't to be one of them, then we wanted it to be one of our other riders. That was me today."
Alfredo Bueno, 2nd Place - 95th Cross Country
"This race is awesome. We go through these towns and all the fans, I've never experienced this so for sure. I would like to come back. It's awesome.
"It's the longest ride I've ever done to date by 40k. I was a bit worried. I was like, maybe I've never dealt with this type of fatigue, but it was fine man, just a better guy."
They finished the race in 5:45:40.
