THE Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) will no longer be sending a representative of cyclists to the Caribbean Elite Cycle Road Racing Championships scheduled for October 21 and 22 in Martinique.
This is according to Assistant Racing Secretary of the GCF, Joseph Britton, who told Chronicle Sport the Federation is cash-strapped and cannot afford to finance the team’s participation at the championships.

Britton said the cyclists that had been selected were asked to pay their way to Martinique since corporate Guyana responded negatively to the Federation’s request for financial assistance. However, the selectees are unable to raise the finances needed for the trip.
Originally, the GCF had selected Geron Williams, Jermaine Burrowes, Paul DeNobrega and Jamal John as the team members with Shaquel Agard as the standby.
One week later, the GCF omitted Williams and Burrowes and included Raynauth Jeffrey, Agard and Alonzo Ambrose with a lone female in United Kingdon-iased Guyanese Clair Fraser-Green on the team.

The selectees were required to travel to Paramaribo, Suriname last week to secure their visas to travel to the French Caribbean island for the championships but were unable to do so since the cost to reach Paramarib, as well as cost for each visa and insurance, is prohibitive.

In an effort to ensure Guyana’s participation at the championships, the GCF president Horrace Burrowes contributed $50 000 for DeNobrega and Agard’s travel and visa cost, but according to Britton, the amount is insufficient.
Speaking to Chronicle Sport, DeNobrega explained that the cost of each visa is $15 000 then the cost for insurance is $6 000 “so the total cost for those things alone for himself and Agard amounts to $42 000 … so how will the remaining $8 000 take me and Shaquel to Suriname and back plus pay for hotel and meals while our visas are being processed?” DeNobrega questioned.

Meanwhile, Williams said he only learnt of his selection via Facebook as he was never informed by the GCF.
Asked if he was informed of his omission from the team, Williams said, “I was never informed of that either. No one told me anything.”
When asked about this, Britton, who was selected as manager of the team, said, “I think he (Williams) was informed of his selection, but I’m not certain if he was informed of his omission.”

Asked why Williams was omitted from the original team, Britton said, “We heard that he was injured, so we replaced him.”
However, since returning from his United States of America base approximately three weeks ago, Williams has won a 35-lap circuit in the National Park and two days ago (Sunday) placed fifth in a 80-mile cycle road race.
He is set to participate in another road race on Sunday, the DIGICEL Breast Cancer Awareness race that will be staged around the outer circuit of the National Park.