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ONCE again, and for the umpteenth time in the local cycling fraternity, Carlton Wheelers Cycle Club’s Robin Persaud rode a tactical race to take the feature event of the 11th annual Laparkan-sponsored, Hassan Mohamed-organised 35 laps cycle race around the inner circuit of the National Park yesterday. Twenty-three cyclists were sent on their way by the starter and immediately, during the first lap, Persaud, Alonzo Greaves, Raynauth Jeffrey, Paul De Nobrega, Raul Leal and Enzo Matthews signalled their intentions to dictate the proceedings when they took a 75-metre lead over the second pack.
As the laps progressed in the race, so did the lead for the frontrunners, before Jeffrey who, along with Leal, De Nobrega and Michael Anthony recently returned from the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships, made his solo move to the front at the start of the 11th lap.
He was joined by Persaud and Leal four laps later, leaving Greaves, Matthews and De Nobrega to work overtime in their bid to reconnect, a feat they failed to achieve, as the frontrunners increased their pace and with it their lead, taking it close to 800 metres and over at times.
In the sprint for home, Persaud displayed his authority by outsprinting Leal, leaving Jeffrey to settle for third, while Greaves summed up all his energy and experience to edge De Nobrega for the fourth position, with Matthews picking up sixth.
What is alarming to those who witnessed the event was that of the 23 starters, only 8 crossed the finish line at the end of the event, which Persaud won in a time of 1hr.20m:55secs, while picking up two of the eight sprint prizes. Jeffrey claimed five and Leal the other.
Earlier in the day, Alfie Sonaram took the Boys and Girls 12-14 category race from Marica Dick and Naomi Singh, with Dick picking up the lone sprint prize, followed by Junior Niles’ victory in the Veterans Under-50 event over Kennard Lovell and Shameer Baksh.
Lancelot Rose was also in winners’ row, taking the Veterans Over-50 event from Wilfred Thom and Dawayne Ramsay before Maurice Fagundes romped away with the Veterans Over-60 event from Harry Lall and Krisendat Singh.
The Junior/Juveniles 10 laps event was won by Leal who took two sprint prizes as well, with Alonso Ambrose and Andre Abdool taking the other two top positions, Jude Bentley the Mountain Bike category, over Keon Thomas and Nigel Jacobs.
Isaiah Sahadeo rode off with the BMX 6-9 event from Jeremiah Harris and Ken Sahadeo, Keon Harris, the BMX 9-12 from Bryton John and Rashidi Ceres, Deeraj Garbarran the 12-14 category over Shameer Dass and Randy Ramlall, and Cleveland King the BMX Open category from Adrian Sharma and Christopher Griffith.
Representatives from the sponsor were on hand to assist with the distribution of prizes. The cyclists will turn their attention to the West Demerara carriageway this morning, when they battle for supremacy in the Malta 50-mile road race which pedals off from the Wales Police Station at 09:00hrs.
As the laps progressed in the race, so did the lead for the frontrunners, before Jeffrey who, along with Leal, De Nobrega and Michael Anthony recently returned from the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships, made his solo move to the front at the start of the 11th lap.
He was joined by Persaud and Leal four laps later, leaving Greaves, Matthews and De Nobrega to work overtime in their bid to reconnect, a feat they failed to achieve, as the frontrunners increased their pace and with it their lead, taking it close to 800 metres and over at times.
In the sprint for home, Persaud displayed his authority by outsprinting Leal, leaving Jeffrey to settle for third, while Greaves summed up all his energy and experience to edge De Nobrega for the fourth position, with Matthews picking up sixth.
What is alarming to those who witnessed the event was that of the 23 starters, only 8 crossed the finish line at the end of the event, which Persaud won in a time of 1hr.20m:55secs, while picking up two of the eight sprint prizes. Jeffrey claimed five and Leal the other.
Earlier in the day, Alfie Sonaram took the Boys and Girls 12-14 category race from Marica Dick and Naomi Singh, with Dick picking up the lone sprint prize, followed by Junior Niles’ victory in the Veterans Under-50 event over Kennard Lovell and Shameer Baksh.
Lancelot Rose was also in winners’ row, taking the Veterans Over-50 event from Wilfred Thom and Dawayne Ramsay before Maurice Fagundes romped away with the Veterans Over-60 event from Harry Lall and Krisendat Singh.
The Junior/Juveniles 10 laps event was won by Leal who took two sprint prizes as well, with Alonso Ambrose and Andre Abdool taking the other two top positions, Jude Bentley the Mountain Bike category, over Keon Thomas and Nigel Jacobs.
Isaiah Sahadeo rode off with the BMX 6-9 event from Jeremiah Harris and Ken Sahadeo, Keon Harris, the BMX 9-12 from Bryton John and Rashidi Ceres, Deeraj Garbarran the 12-14 category over Shameer Dass and Randy Ramlall, and Cleveland King the BMX Open category from Adrian Sharma and Christopher Griffith.
Representatives from the sponsor were on hand to assist with the distribution of prizes. The cyclists will turn their attention to the West Demerara carriageway this morning, when they battle for supremacy in the Malta 50-mile road race which pedals off from the Wales Police Station at 09:00hrs.
