CARLTON wheelers cyclists Junior Niles captured the feature 35-lap event of the Annual National Sports Commission sponsored Mashramani 11-race cycle programme in the National Park yesterday.Niles who returned a time of one hour 17 minutes 36.45 seconds made his move with three laps remaining and opened a sizeable lead that he maintained for the remainder of the race.
Niles who won by approximately 125 metres from the second finisher Orville Hinds failed to cop any of the eight prime prizes that were up for grabs.
The feature event which began at a fast pace saw several of the competitors attempting to launch breaks but they were shut down by their rivals.
However, during the 15th lap Raynauth `Obeah Man’ Jeffrey” made a break and opened a sizeable lead over the chasing bunch, but after holding the lead for about five laps, he was wheeled in by the chasing pack.
With 10 laps remaining, Robin surged ahead of the field, but was followed by a tightly group that included Raynauth Jeffrey and Stephen Fernandes that earlier made a break and controlled the race for a number of laps.
With seven laps remaining, Persaud was joined by Paul Cho-Wee-Nam at the head of affairs and the duo led for another three laps before being joined by Orville Hinds and a host of other riders.
In the end, Niles got away with two laps remaining and won with about125 metres ahead of the second place finisher, Orville Hinds.
Third was last year’s winner Alonzo Greaves, while the fourth, fifth and sixth spot placers were Raymond Jeffrey, Michael Anthony and Paul DeNobrega , respectively.
Junior Niles’ winning time for the event was one hour 17 minutes 36 seconds which is better that the one hour 28 minutes 15 seconds that Greaves registered in wining last year’s event.
In other results, Michael Anthony won the 10-lap race for juveniles ahead of Alonzo and Akeem Arthur, respectively.
Linden Blackman won the veterans over-50 five-lap race ahead of Wilfred Thom, while Maurice Faugendes was the winner of the five-lap race for veterans over 60 years of age.
Clyde Jacobs, Nigel Jacobs and Ryan Nurse placed first, second and third, respectively, in the five-lap race for mountain bikers, while Sherwin Sampson was first in the three-lap race for BMX boys nine to 12 years old, second was Turhan Gorbarrhan.
Rawle Small won the three-lap race for BMX boys ahead of Brighton John and Tariq Khan, respectively/.
The BMX boys six to nine years old two-lap event was won by Sherwin Sampson, second was Eson Jaisingh and third was Alexander Leung.
Meanwhile, the National Sports Commission’s Annual 40-mile cycle road race will be staged today over in the West Demerara area beginning at 08:00hrs from the Demerara Harbour Bridge. The event will move off from the Demerara Harbour Bridge and proceed to Bushy Park, East Bank Essequibo, before returning to the place of origin for the finish.