FOLLOWING Team Coco’s dominance on the local cycling stage for the past three years, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony had proposed the setting up of a Team Guyana to not only give the Miami-based Team Coco’s a strong challenge, but also return cycling supremacy back to Guyana.

Many felt that when the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) under the stewardship of Cheryl Thompson selected two teams – senior and junior Team Guyana – to compete in the just concluded MCYS/Ministry of Health/GCF sixth annual ‘Ride for Life’ five-stage cycle road race, the dominance of Team Coco’s would have come to an end.
However, before the race was held, one of the clubs attached to the GCF, Roraima Bikers Club, pulled out of the event and with that decision, carried one of the country’s top cyclists in Alonzo Greaves, who was selected by the GCF to compete on Team Guyana.
Added to that, there was no junior Team Guyana, as Raynauth Jeffrey, Paul De Nobrega, Michael Anthony and Raul Leal turned up at the starting line for the first stage, outfitted in Team Coco’s riding gear, along with Walter Grant-Stuart and Junior Niles.
The end result of the five-stage event was evident at the completion of the first stage when the cyclists rode from Corriverton to New Amsterdam in the Ancient County of Berbice – a race won by Team Coco’s Jaime Ramirez, who later carted off the top podium spot, with a record time 9h.46m: 51secs.
So dominant were the Team Coco’s lineup during the event, that Ramirez rode away with 11 sprint prizes, his teammate Darren Matthews took six, De Nobrega three, Jeffrey and Ivan Dominguez one each, while Kester Croal got two and Geron Williams, Jaikaran Sukhai and Andre Simon took one each.
While assessing Team Coco’s and the other foreign riders’ performances in the just concluded event, Dr Anthony said it was a plus for the event, as it brought the best out of the cyclists, with the top 26 finishers all finishing inside Antonio Quintero’s 2010 record-breaking time of 10h. 18m: 45secs, adding that we live in a country where we encourage international participation.
“One of the things that you must take into consideration and from what I have heard, we have had a number of persons arguing about whether or not Team Coco’s approach of having a number of Guyanese being a part of  their team is the right thing.
“And maybe a week from now, we should have a conference with all the cycling clubs from Guyana and let’s have a discussion, as I think it is useful, not just for us to be reliably informed, but let us sit down and look at where we want to take cycling, where we want to go, how we want to develop and what we are developing,” stated Dr Anthony.
He called on the respective individuals in the local cycling fraternity to come forward and participate in the discussion which he says will be an open one, as the MCYS, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, is looking forward to seeing a unified Guyana team compete on the local cycling fraternity.
According to Dr Anthony, the GCF needs to form an elite athlete programme for cycling, using it as a yardstick to identify athletes who will be part of the school, with the aim to further strengthen Guyana’s participation at the 2016 Olympics that is scheduled to be held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
“After every Olympics, we beat ourselves up and we wonder why is it we have not sent the best teams to represent us, but the simple reason is that we don’t spend enough time preparing our athletes to go to these top class events around the world,” said Dr. Anthony.
He added, “In cycling, we see the individuals coming together and I want to see us develop an elite athletes programme in cycling, which means that from very early, we can determine the athletes, identify who  will be a part of this team that can take the Guyana flag to higher heights.
“We have talented riders and persons who can coach them and give them the coaching that they need to get them there and we can provide more competition in the next couple of years, so that they can be on top of their game when we get to Rio de Janiero.
“We should not wait until it is closer to that time to start preparing our athletes, we have to start now. We have to put these programmes in place and with the discussion we have been having and the kind of facilities Team Coco can provide, then I think we need to have that strategic partnership so we can develop our own elite athletes programme, looking ahead to Rio.”
Dr Anthony told his audience which also included Director of Sport Neil Kumar, Deputy Permanent Secretary within the MCYS Steve Ninvalle, participants of the five-stage event and fans, that a partnership is needed in order for the objectives he outlined to become a reality.
“We by ourselves would not be able to do it. We have to combine the efforts of partners who want to join with us and that’s something we have to come together and discuss as soon as possible and the people who are willing to work with us, we must embrace them, as the quality of our cycling has not improved drastically.”
In his brief remarks, Ninvalle applauded the cyclists who competed in the event, covering a distance of 266 miles over four days, adding how pleasant it was of them to also ensure it was an incident- and hassle-free one.
Thompson said all the stages were highly competitive pointing out the importance of teamwork and what can be achieved when persons work as a team and called on her Guyanese counterparts to emulate Team Coco’s and work as a team.
The GCF head also reminded her audience that the GCF will be sending a seven-member team to the Senior Elite Championships (SEC) in Antigua on October 20 and 21.
However, with Greaves withdrawing from both the ‘Ride for Life’ and this weekend’s SEC,  the senior category of Team Guyana reads: Robin Persaud, Jude Bentley, Geron Williams, Orville Hinds, Kester Croal, Eric Sankar and Enzo Matthews.
Thompson said Naomi Singh and Hazina Barrett who was surprisingly left out of the female team, will travel to Antigua while the GCF is trying to get England-based Guyanese Claire Fraser to join the touring party which will have former cyclist Wayne De Abreu acting as coach.