AS LOCAL cyclists prepare for the staging of the Guyana Cycle Federation’s (GCF) third points-race for the 2017 season, Team Coco’s Jamal John is highly favoured to win tomorrow’s event, which gets underway from 08:30hrs outside the Ocean View International Hotel, East Coast Demerara.
John won the two previous points-races and stands at the top of the points table with 30 points and will be seeking to add an additional 15 points to his tally by winning tomorrow’s event, which will see the cyclists travel up the East Coast of Demerara to Abary Bridge and back to finish at the place of origin.
Close on John’s wheel in the points standing, with 20 points from two third-place finishes in the previous two races is Andrew Hicks. However, Hicks will not be a part of tomorrow’s event, since he is currently in the United States on training.
Following Hicks is Raphael Leung, with 13 points, Paul DeNobrega (12) and Briton John (12).
Hamza Eastman is next with 10 points, but like Hicks, he too is training in the United States.
Leer Nunes and Junior Niles also have 10 points and they are followed by Ian Jackson (4), Dwayne Gibbs Jr (4), Jason Cameron (3), Eric Sankar (2), Ralph Williams (1) and Everal Murphy (1).
The GCF is using the points system for selecting its national team for Regional and International competitions, despite the selectees not being reigning champions and in some cases, even being runners-up in national championships, resulting in Guyana being poorly represented at the recently concluded Pan American Road Race Championship that was held in the Dominican Republic.
Apart from the poor decision of using the points system to select teams, the GFC executives selected Joseph Britton and its president Horace Burrowes to accompany the team and this proved to be a disaster for team members, as they were not adequately tended to during the gruelling 140k road race, which saw Hicks, although in the leading bunch and nearing the finish, suffered cramps. Contestants hailed from some of Pan American’s leading cycling countries including Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, United States, Canada and Brazil among others.