TACTICAL riding and sprinting from Michael Anthony saw the cyclist from the mining town of Linden take the top prize in the 12th annual Victor Macedo Memorial 70-mile road from Hamza Eastman and Paul DeNobrega in that order.

The veteran Robin Persaud, who picked up a puncture just after the turn-back point at Long Creek on the Linden Soesdyke Highway, rebounded to place fourth while Alonzo Ambrose and young Raphael Leung rounded off the top six positions.
On the upward journey, a six-man peloton made up of DeNobrega, Eastman, Persaud, Alanzo Greaves, Raynauth Jeffrey and defending champion Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams, made their move to the front of the pack as they approached Craig on the East Bank of Demerara.
They worked together on the upward journey, sharing the sprint prizes as they came along, while the chasing peloton that had within its ranks, Anthony, Ambrose, Leung, Albert Philander, Paul Choo-Wee-Nam, Christopher Holder and several junior, veteran and mountain bike riders, tried to bridge the gap to no avail.
However, as the frontrunners were approximately 1500 metres from the turn-back point, Anthony connected while Williams attacked just before they turned back and with Persaud picking up the puncture, Williams, Greaves and Jeffrey were the lone frontrunners.
Williams tried several times to shake a tired-looking Greaves off his back wheel but with little or at times no support from Jeffrey, who was unable to do so resulting in Anthony, DeNobrega and Eastman connecting with the front trio as they approached Yarrowkabra on the downward journey.
Several cat-and-mouse games ensued, before DeNobrega thought he had enough and with a burst of energy, made his way to the front with the East Bank Demerara carriageway a mere 300 metres away, where he was joined a few seconds later by Eastman and Anthony.
The trio worked hard to increase their lead at the front and they were given tremendous help by Williams, Greaves and Jeffrey, who were more content on arguing over the number of races won amongst themselves.
This act provoked many during and after the race, since the three were recently selected by the Guyana Cycling Federation to represent Guyana at the Elite Caribbean Cycling Championships set for October 11-12 in Puerto Rico, along with Eastman and national road race champion Geron Williams.
However, in the rush for the finish line, Anthony out-sprinted Eastman, while DeNobrega settled for third.
Anthony’s time for the 70-mile event was three hours 14 minutes 19 seconds. He was also declared champion of the junior category ahead of Ambrose and Travis Jeffrey respectively.
Ian `Dumb Boy’s Jackson won the veterans’ category ahead of Evral Mundray and Junior Niles respectively, while Keon Thomas was the first mountain biker to cross the finish line. Second in this category was Julio Melville and third was Deoraj Garbarran.
Raphael Leung was first among the juvenile riders. Second was Romelo Crawford and third was Jamal Jackson.

(By Michael DaSilva and Calvin Roberts)