FOR the second time this year, Team Coco’s Ivan Dominguez, nicknamed the ‘Cuban Missile’ displayed his riding prowess on the local scene, when he took the fourth stage of this year’s Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport/Ministry of Health (MoH)/Guyana Cycling Federation-organised sixth annual ‘Ride for Life’ in the Cinderella County of Essequibo.

His winning time of 2h.20m:38secs for the 62-mile journey, which saw the riders move from Supenaam to Charity and back to Suddie for the finish, was enough to propel him from ninth position on the overall leaders’ board, to sixth.
His team mate and winner of the first stage Jaime Ramirez sits at the top with close to a three-minute lead over his fellow teammate Darren Matthews and is well-positioned to take the title, unless something drastic happens this morning during the final stage.
After witnessing Regional Chairman of Region Two, Parmanand Persaud, presenting Team Guyana’s Geron Williams with his yellow jersey, a symbol of his third stage win the previous day, the riders were sent on their way following a brief message from the Regional Health Officer.
Aruba’s Murvin Arumjo took over the leadership position at the head of the peloton and held a lead of 150 metres over the peloton, before he was caught before they entered Riverstown, where Ramirez took the first of his four sprint prizes, from the six that were up for grabs during the stage.
As they passed through Riverstown, former national cyclist Paul Choo-Wee-Nam made his solo move to front and led all the way to Suddie, before he was wheeled in by the peloton which was led by Team Coco and included Dominguez, Ramirez, Darren Matthews, Raynauth Jeffrey, Paul De Nobrega and Michael Anthony.
Despite several short breaks by some of the cyclists who are lower on the leader board, the chasing peloton were able to connect without any hassle, but as they entered Devonshire Castle, a group of 13 cyclists made a move to the front.
This group of Dominguez, Ramirez, Darren Matthews, De Nobrega, Jeffrey, O’Selmo, Antonio Alarton, Eric Sankar, Moses Ricketts, Gino Hodge and Raul Leal and they worked in tandem on the upward journey, before Dominguez and Ramirez broke away as they passed through Better Hope on the Essequibo coastland.
They increased their lead over the first peloton, who held a further 800-metre lead over the second peloton that included Choo-Wee-Nam, Williams, Enzo Matthews, Orville Hinds, Walter Grant-Stuart, Junior Niles, Hector Edwards 111 and Kester Croal.
The 36-year-old Dominguez, who defected from Cuba and acquired American citizenship in 2009, and Ramirez never looked back, surviving two sharp showers on their way to the finish line, where the eventual winner easily took the race without any resistance from his teammate.
The second peloton crossed the finish line at 2h.23m:03secs after Dominguez and Ramirez, while the third peloton did the same 1m: 31secs after, a testament of the pace that was being dictated by the Cuban Missile at the front of the event.
Meanwhile, the riders will head to the mining town of Linden to do battle in the fifth and final stage this morning, pedalling to Homestretch Avenue in Georgetown from Kara Kara on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway from 07:00hrs.
The top 10 riders with their timings in brackets are as follows: Ramirez (7h.10m:58secs), Darren Matthews (7h. 13m: 25secs), Jeffrey (7h. 17m: 22secs), Ricketts (7h. 18m: 47secs), O’Selmo (7h. 18m: 49secs), Dominguez (7h. 18m: 55secs), Gino Hodge (7h. 19m: 01secs), De Nobrega (7h. 21m: 13secs), Antonio Alarcon (7h. 22m: 16secs) and Sankar (7h. 25m: 50secs).