RORAIMA Bikers Club’s (RBC) Alonso Greaves demonstrated to all and sundry why he is the top sprinter on the local cycling stage, when he outsprinted the pack to take the feature race of the 19th annual Ricks and Sari sponsored cycling programme held around the inner circuit of the National Park last Saturday.
Greaves’ winning time of 1:19:10secs highlighted the pace of the race, which saw the eventual winner outsprinting his club mate Warren ‘40’ Mc Kay, Robin Persaud, Mark Lewis, Geron Williams and Linden’s Orville Hinds in that order to take the first race of this year’s cycling season.
It was such a close finish, despite Greaves being declared the overall winner that a photo finish was needed to declare the third place finisher, from which Persaud was awarded that position.
Prior to the start of the day’s events, national cycling coach Hassan Mohammed  called on those present to observed a minute’s silence for the passing of junior cyclist Justin De Nobrega, the younger brother of Paul de Nobrega who was shot and killed on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway last Friday evening.
Steven Smith then took the first event, BMX Boys 6-9 from Jamal Arthur and Denzil Huntley before Shamar Dass rode away with the BMX 9-12 race ahead of Yusuf Latiff and Deeraj Garbarran, while Yannick La Rose won the BMX 12-14 from Dass and Garbarran respectively.
Adrian Sharma claimed the BMX Open category race from Cleveland King and Mikhail Dias, which was followed by the Junior/Juveniles 10 laps race that was won by Michael Anthony over Akeem Arthur and Rawle Leal.
The Upright event was taken by Richard Charles who crossed the finish line ahead of Mario King and Andre Petty, with Monty Parris taking the Veteran’s Over-60 from Maurice Fagundes, Wilfred Thom the Veteran Over- 50 from Harry Lall and Krishand Singh and Junior Niles the Veteran Under-50 from Raymond Newton and Thurman Harris respectively.
The Boys and Girls 12-14 event was won by Romario Samuels ahead of Naomi Singh and Alpha Soonaram respectively, while Ricks and Sari Agro Industries’ Carlos Rodrigues, John Lewis and Sven D’ Oliveira was on hand to assist with the presentation of prizes to the respective winners.
The cyclists will now turn their attention to the West Demerara roadways this Sunday, when they will do battle in a 40 mile road race, with details following later in the week.