LAST YEAR, he finished the cycling season with a bang, after taking home the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport/Ministry of Health/National Sports Commission five-stage ‘Ride for Life’ event.This was in addition to the Guyana Cycling Federation’s Time Trial and Road Race Championships, which were already under his belt, coupled with several other races around the inner circuit of the National Park, as well as the Cheddi and Janet Jagan Memorial trilogy on the roadways.
With all that in the bag and the acquisition of a new bike, 19-year-old Raynauth ‘Obeah Man’ Jeffrey of Team Coco’s Guyana has now set his sights on next month’s 32nd annual NSC Independence three-stage cycle road race.
In an invited comment with Chronicle Sport, Jeffrey said he started training in late February with his new bike, with the aim of peaking for the event.
“I recently changed my bike and only began training on the new one late February. In addition to that, I am not in the best of form but with the training I have been putting in recently, I am hoping to peak by the time the first stage pedals off on the 17th next month” said Jeffrey.
He added, “I know several cyclists will be marking me and when I go on a break, they will be coming after me, but I am prepared for that and once I am in top shape, then they will be finding themselves in problems, as was the case with last year’s five-stage when I smoked the field.”
Quizzed on what his training regime is like, taking into consideration his new machine, the former Carlton Wheelers Cycle Club cyclist said he rides from East Coast to Linden every Sunday and during the week he puts in the extra miles and conducts motor pacing.
“I am earnestly looking forward to competing in the three-stage. It is one of the events I would like to win so bad, having won already the Time Trial and national championships, along with the five-stage so I am making sure everything is in place for me to be successful this year.
“I will look at how I feel after I ride the first stage and based on my placing, will be pushing myself to improve during the second stage. I felt real good winning last year’s five-stage and I think the national championships win was a motivating factor, along with my love for stage events,” said Jeffrey.
He said he is not looking at any particular cyclist, whether local or foreign based, since everyone will be coming to compete and compete hard too, making the event more fun-filled.
“I am not looking at a particular cyclist as a threat. We all want to win, but at the end of the day, the one who executes his team’s orders to the punctuation mark can very well be the winner or watch his teammate come out on top and I am looking to go out there and ride hard, since like everyone else, I wish to win the event ….”
Certainly, with national cycling coach Hassan Mohamed expressing his confidence in local cyclists’ ability to lift the title and stop a foreign competitor from doing so for the third successive year, Raynauth ‘Obeah Man’ Jeffrey, may just be one of those cyclists heeding Mohamed’s call on behalf of Guyana.
By Calvin Roberts