GUYANA’S leading road race cyclist Dwayne Gibbs will be seeking to win the National Sports Commission’s (NSC) Independence Three-Stage Road Race for a seventh time when the annual event gets under way from Corriverton, Berbice tomorrow.

Having won the gruelling 169-mile event four consecutive years from 1999 to 2002, then again in 2005 and 2006, the St Maarten-based cyclist who returned to Guyana on Wednesday night will be seeking yet another victory this year, but will have his work cut out since four-time winner Godfrey Pollydore who returned home from Anguilla on Saturday night, compliments of the NSC, will have similar ambitions.

Pollydore won the event on three consecutive occasions (1996, 1997, and 1998) then returned last year from Anguilla to claim his fourth title.

Apart from Pollydore, there are other overseas-based as well as local-based cyclists who will be seeking to ink their names in the record books such as Andrew Reece who is based in Antigua and who won the prestigious event in 2003, despite not winning any of the three stages.

Among the locals who will be looking forward to a victory are Junior Niles, Robin Persaud, Leer Nunes, John Charles and Warren McKay.

However, they will all have to work overtime if they are to get past the `Road Hog’ as he (Gibbs) is familiarly known in Guyana.

Gibbs shares the distinction of being the joint race record holder together with Godfrey Pollydore. In the 1998 edition of the race, the two pedal pushers registered a winning time of six hours 23 minutes 26 seconds (6:23.26) to erase Louis Perreira’s record of 7:17.40 which was set in 1992.

That year also, the duo were both riding under the Kaieteur Cycle Club banner and it was that year also that Pollydore won all three stages and, together with Gibbs, destroyed the records for all three stages.

Niles, for his part, won the first stage on two consecutive occasions (2005 and 2006) and will be looking to better those performances this year but will have to call on his reserve if he is to achieve a win.

After winning the event for a fifth time in 2005, Gibbs announced his retirement and had said he was leaving the event to the younger riders.

He named Alonzo Greaves as one of the country’s brighter prospects who would come good in years to come. That has been more than three years ago, so, come this weekend, cycling fans and enthusiasts will have an opportunity to see if Greaves, who is in good nick at the moment, can stage an upset.

In 2006, Gibbs unexpectedly returned to Guyana for the event and despite not winning a single stage, was declared the overall winner.

Niles had won the first stage, Greaves the second and Trinidadian Guy Costa the third.

Gibbs was fifth overall going into the third stage with a time of 4:25.18 and placed third, but ended the race with a time of 7:17.29.

With this in mind, fans and supporters can expect a keenly contested three-stage race this year.