CONTINENTAL Cycle Club’s (CCC) Enzo Matthews called on all his reserves yesterday to outsprint Roraima Bikers Club’s (RBC) Darren Allen to take the feature race of the Hassan Mohamed-organised, seventh annual Universal Auto and General Supplies race programme around the inner circuit of the National Park. Matthews completed the 35 laps event in a time of 1:22.48secs, taking three of the eight sprint prizes, with Allen, Kurt La Rose, Berbice’s Toran Harris, Junior Niles and Paul De Nobrega completing the top six in an event that saw cyclists of the calibre of defending champion Alonso Greaves, Robin Persaud and Walter Grant-Stuart dropped and lapped by the frontrunners.
Allen took the initiative and went to the front of the peloton that included Greaves, Robin and Christopher Persaud, Grant-Stuart, De Nobrega and Harris on the 16th lap, before he was joined by Matthews two laps later.
Indecision among  the cyclists in the chasing peloton saw the two front runners widen their lead by some 400 metres, before they caught up with the peloton with six laps to go.
Matthews and Allen’s lead over the two-man group of La Rose and Harris was also increased from 200 metres to close to 1 500 metres as they distanced themselves away from the other riders.
In the end, the pace was too much for Greaves, Robin and Chris Persaud and Grant-Stuart and they opted to drop out the race. As Allen and Matthews approached the final turn for the finish, Matthews outsprinted Allen to take the top prize.
Other results for the day saw Rawle Leal taking the Boys and Girls 12-14 event from Naomi Singh and Alonzo Ambrose, Deeraj Garbaran winning the BMX 9-12 from Rashidi Ceres and Ryad Baksh, and Hamza Eastman the BMX Open from Julio Melville and Nial Kingston.
In the Veterans Under-50 event, Kennard Lovell maintained his supremacy over Virgil Jones and Linden Blackman; Lancelot Rose took the Veterans Over-50 from Omar McDougal and Monty Parris while Parris was forced the settle for second place behind Maurice Fagundes in the Veterans Over-60 category.
Dellon Moore took the Upright category and both sprint prizes from Marlon King and Delias Richardson, while Dexter Wilson copped the top position in the Upright category from Kester Croal and Mario King in that order.
In the feature event, Alex Mendes took two of the eight prime prizes while Allen, Niles, and De Nobrega shared the rest.
Prior to the presentation of prizes, Mohamed lauded the sponsors, whose managing director Shameer Baksh also competes and was present to give their continued support. He apprised the cyclists of the closure of the venue over the next few weeks, due to planned Easter activities.