THE National Sports Commission (NSC) yesterday staged its 37th annual 11-race cycling programme with Albert Philander copping top honours in the main event at the National Park.

Competing in the feature 35-lap School Boys and Invitational race, Philander pulled away from the peleton with two laps to go and made a dash for the finish line.
He was in a large bunch heading into the tailend of the race, but pulled away from the pack on lap 33. With the remaining riders in the trailing bunch looking at each other to make the first move, Philander kept increasing the lead, until Raynauth Jeffrey sprinted away from the pack in pursuit of the race leader.
Though Jeffrey managed to significantly close the gap, Philander had already created a sizeable enough lead, crossing the finish line unchallenged in a time of one hour, 16 minutes, 35.01 seconds (01h: 16m: 35.01s).
Jeffrey, who had to settle for the runner-up spot, had himself built a lengthy lead over the pack, leaving John Charles, Robin Persaud, Delroy Hinds and Alanzo Greaves to settle for position four to six in that order.
Hinds collected three of the eight prime prizes on offer, while Philander, Jeffrey, Warren McKay, Paul DeNobrega and Akeem Wilkinson took one each.
Prior to the main event, several age category races were held with the BMX riders taking centre stage in the programme, which was being held to measure their progress in the ongoing 37th annual Teach Them Young cycling camp sponsored by the NSC.
In the BMX 6-9 race, Sherwin Sampson won ahead of Jeremiah Harrison and Alexander Leung, while Rashidi Ceres won from Amo Gomes and Stephan Wilkinson in the BMX 9-12.
Deeraj Garbarran was the winner of the BMX 12-14, leaving Raphael Leung and Rawle Small to settle for second and third respectively.
The BMX Open and 12-14 Open were won by Jamal John, who sped away from his rivals in both events. Christopher Griffith and Cleveland King were second and third respectively in the BMX Open, while Nigel Duguid and Tarique Williams trailed John in the 12-14 Open.
Junior Niles was the leading Veterans Under-50 rider, finishing ahead of Shameer Baksh and Kennard Lovell, while Virgil Jones copped the Veterans Over-50 race ahead of Wilfred Thom and Courtney Hackett. The evergreen Maurice Fagundes was the lone entry in the Veterans Over-60.
The Juveniles race was taken by Alanzo Ambrose, who won ahead of Silvio Inniss and Stephano Husbands, while Keon Thomas, Julio Melville and Clyde Jacobs were 1-2-3 in the Mountain Bike race.