SPIRITED riding from Flying Stars’ Ian ‘Dumb Boy’ Jackson guaranteed him the top position with a time of 1.19:13s, in the Schoolboys and Invitation 35-lap cycle race around the inner circuit of the National Park yesterday, bringing the curtain down on the seventh annual Diamond Mineral Water-sponsored event. A star-studded field, comprising Olympic hopefuls Alonso Greaves and Geron Williams, Jude Bently, Eric Sankar, Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams, Albert Philander, Robin Persaud, Seon Alves and the consistent Raynauth Jeffrey and Paul De Nobrega, faced the starter.
However, as early as the third lap of the race, Jeffrey, Greaves, the unrelated Marlon and Geron Williams, Persaud, Sankar, De Nobrega and Alves made a move to the front of the peloton, where they held a lead of approximately 150 metres.
They worked in tandem to increase same, but as they approached the halfway point of lap 13, Walter Grant-Stuart, Marlon Williams, Sankar, De Nobrega, Alves and the eventual winner upped the tempo, leaving Greaves, Persaud, Bently and surprisingly Jeffrey, amongst others, in their wake.
The humid conditions overhead took its toll on some of the cyclists and when Jackson silenced those on hand with a whirlwind-like move as they approached the final turn for the finish, only Alves, Marlon Williams, De Nobrega, Sankar and Grant-Stuart crossed the line behind him, as the other competitors were either lapped or dropped from the event.
Of the eight prime prizes up for grabs, Sankar took home two while Persaud, Grant-Stuart, Jackson, Alves, Jeffrey and Orville Hinds shared the other six.
Naomi Singh started off the day’s events with a successful ride in the 12-14 Boys and Girls BMX three-lap race, winning same in a time of 7m: 08sec from Alfie Sonaram, after which Shameer Baksh rode away with the Veterans Under-50 five-lap race from Kennard Lovell and James Mentore respectively.
The Veterans Over-50 event race was won by Virgil Jones with Wilfred Thom and Courtney Hackett placing second and third and this was followed by the Veterans Over-60 clash in which Maurice Fagundes proved to be the fitter cyclist over Harry Lall.
Nigel Jacobs took the Upright category from Andre Petty, Isaiah Sahadeo the BMX 6-9 two laps from his cousin Ken Sahadeo and Christopher Goring, Dritton John the 9-12 two-lap event from Kapildev Bisham and Tarun Garbarran and Adrian Sharma the 12-14 category from Khemraj Sanichar and Jason Jordan.
Mikhail Diaz who was aboard his BMX cycle nicknamed ‘Redjet’ and indeed he was jet-like, as he took the BMX Open category from Hamza Eastman – who replaced Cleveland King – and Adrian Sharma respectively.
While the cyclists turn their attention to the mining town of Linden, where they will compete in the historic inaugural Baker’s Memorial Cycling Classic around the Amelia’s Ward cycling circuit, they will head to the West Demerara roadway next Sunday to do battle in the Banks DIH/PowerAde 50-mile event, organised by national cycling coach Hassan Mohamed.