Team Coco’s Jamal John rode superbly to win the 11th Annual Universal Auto Sales and Spares sponsored feature 35-lap cycle race in the National Park Yesterday, registering a time of one hour 18 minutes 08.62 seconds..John along with 31 other pedal pushers faced the starter and after the second lap was completed, John along with team mate Raynauth Jeffrey, Shaquil Agard and Akeem Wilkinson broke from the pack and opened a sizeable lead which kept extending at every lap.
It was during the 17th lap, the quartet lapped a bunch of nine other cyclists that included last year’s winner Robin Persaud along with Warren McKay, Raul Leal, Junior Niles and others.
However, with 12 laps remaining, Wilkinson probably felt the pressure and kicked off, allowing the main chasing pack that included Marlon `Fishy’ Williams Hamzah Eastman and Walter Grant-Stuart to catch up with him.
Two laps later, Agard suffered a puncture to his back wheel and took quite some time to replace it with a borrowed wheel that did not seem to fit well as thereafter, he was visibly struggling to get back into contention.
John, helped on by two teammates, broke away and went on to win unchallenged.
In the sprint for the other top three places, Jeffrey started the sprint from approximately 125 metres from the line and was quickly followed by Williams, but when they straightened up for home Eastman took the inside while Williams came around Jeffrey, but it was Eastman who crossed the line ahead of Williams. Jeffrey had to settle for fourth.
Wilkinson and Grant-Stuart placed fifth and sixth respectively.
John won four prime prizes while Jeffrey captured two and Agard one.
In other results of the 11-race programme organised by national cycle coach Hassan Mohamed, Brighton John won the three-lap race for BMX boys and girls ahead of Daniel Pereira and Toshawana Doris respectively.
Race sponsor Shameer Baksh won the five lap race for veterans under 50 years of age. Second was Jaikarran Sukhai and finishing third was Junior Niles.
Linden Blackman won the five-lap race for veterans over 50 years of age, while Wilfred Thom won the veterans’ over 60 years of age event over the same distance.
Raphael Leung was the winner of the 10-lap race for juveniles. Second was Jamal John and third was Romello Crawford.
Keon Thomas won the five-lap race for mountain bikers ahead of Juilio Melville and Deraj Garbarran respectively, while Alexander Leung came out on top in the BMX boys six-nine years old two-lap event. Second was Esau Jai Singh and third was Cho Sue Hang.
Johnatan Jagdeo won the three-lap race for BMX boys 9-12 years old ahead of Johnatan Ramcushit.