Williams hard-pressed to retain Tour of Guyana title
DEFENDING champion Geron Williams will be hard-pressed to retain his Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS)/Ministry of Health (MOH) in collaboration with the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) organised Tour of Guyana cycle road race title, when the fourth edition pedals off today. Over the next four days, cyclists from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Suriname and Guyana will be battling for supremacy as they cover a distance of 266 miles from Corriverton in the east to Charity in the west, with the winner pedalling off with $200 000 and a trophy.
The present form of Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams who, along with Geron and the inaugural champion of this event Alonso Greaves represented Guyana at the just concluded Commonwealth Games in India, can pose a serious threat to all the competitors.
Not to be outdone, there are also in the mix-up Dwayne Gibbs, Warren ‘40’ McKay, Raymond Newton, Jamal Nichols, Albert Philander, Gordon Kennedy and Marlon King from Roraima Bikers Club (RBC), the same club Marlon Williams and Greaves represent.
Robin Persaud and Junior Niles will be looking to stake a claim on the title, with Niles being the 2008 winner, doing so in a time of 10 hours 38mins 13 secs, in comparison to Greaves’ time of 11:4.28 done in 2007 when the event was first held.
Geron Williams’ time for last year’s race is 10:30.51 and with Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony calling for and receiving on every occasion he has done so a faster time this year, cycling enthusiasts can expect a thrilling encounter on the road.
Anguilla-based Guyanese Godfrey Pollydore is back to compete in this event for the first time, so too is Canada-based Bruce Camacho, but apart from the abovementioned, local-based cyclists Enzo Matthews, Paul De Nobrega, Eric Sankar, Alex Mendes and Tony Simon can all spring a surprise or two on their day.
Berbice’s fast-rising cyclist Neil Reece Jr will be looking to cast his name into the ballot box, while the veterans cannot be overlooked, as they enjoy heated battles for supremacy among themselves and nothing different can be expected, especially from the likes of Linden Blackman, Gary Benjamin and Kennard Lovell.
While Hurricane Tomas forced the Barbadian contingent that would have included 16-year-old Marlon Forde, the cousin of Barbados’ world renowned cyclist Barry Forde, from competing, Trinidad and Tobago will be represented by three cyclists coming out of San Fernando.
The Miami-based Team Coco is made up of cyclists from Colombia, Santo Domingo and Cuba along with a contingent of cyclists from neighbouring Suriname to add international flavour to the race that is being used to sensitise the Guyanese population on the deadly disease HIV/AIDS.
All the cyclists who were present at the MCYS office yesterday were briefed on their expectations as Peer Educators during the race. They were told to remain disciplined at all times while going for faster times during the event.
Marketing Executive of Banks DIH Limited, Carlton Joao, also took the opportunity to present to national cycling coach Hassan Mohamed, a quantity of Powerade drink and water to be used by the cyclists during the five stages of the race.
Apart from the overall prizes, which will see the second and third place finishers pocket $150 000 and $100 000 respectively, prizes will be given right down to the 10th place cyclist who will receive $10 000. There are individual stage prizes of $10 000, $6 000 and $4 000 to the first three finishers of each stage.
A cash prize of $50 000 will be awarded to the top club at the end of the event which has attracted sponsorship until the year 2015.
The first stage pedals off from the Corriverton Police Station from 07:00 h and proceeds to New Amsterdam while the second stage takes place this afternoon from 14:00 h, at which time the cyclists will ride from Rosignol to Carifesta Avenue.
In those two stages the cyclists will cover a distance of 107 miles. Stage three will cover a distance of 35 miles from Wales Police Station to Parika tomorrow morning, following which the remaining cyclists will journey over to Supenaam to contest the fourth stage on Saturday morning that takes them from Supenaam to Charity and back to Suddie for the finish, a distance of 62 miles.
The fifth and final stage will commence from Kara Kara on the Linden Highway and proceed to Homestretch Avenue, a similar distance to the fourth stage, following which the presentation of prizes will be done at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall shortly after the race ends.