Written by Calvin Roberts
PRIOR to the start of yesterday morning’s final stage in the National Sports Commission/Ministry of Sports/Ministry of Health/Guyana Cycling Federation seventh annual ‘Ride for Life’ five stage cycle road race, Team United’s Orville Hinds was lying in sixth position, 3m:02secs behind race leader Raynauth Jeffrey.

As the 30 of the 32 remaining cyclists were making their way through the village of Prospect on the East Bank of Demerara, Orville and his younger brother Delroy Hinds along with Wazim Gafoor was involved in a spill.
In a show of teamwork, the younger Hinds, handed his bike to Orville, who was later joined by his teammate Albert Philander, who set the pace to take him back to the main peloton which was all together throughout the 64.5miles (103.3km) journey, which saw the riders pedalling from Kara Kara to Homestretch Avenue.
After showing signs of discomfort on his brother’s bike, Orville was handed Mario King’s bike, another great sign of teamwork, following which he went onto take the stage, doing so in a time of 2h. 37mins: 58secs from Darren Matthews and Geron Williams.
The signs of teamwork amongst Team United which comprised, Philander, Orville and Delroy Hinds, King and Hamza Eastman, along with the overseas based Horace Burrowes caught the attention of Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony, who issued them with one of three special prizes, at the presentation ceremony.
The keenly contested final leg, certainly highlighted the intensity and brought the high level of competition amongst the cyclists who stayed with the journey throughout the five stages, wherein they were asked to ride a combined total of 266 miles (430km) over four days.
There were several mini breaks as they made their way through the Linden Soesdyke highway, but the peloton which consisted of riders in the top 10, caught up with the front runners on every occasion, as they protected their lead.
As they passed Splashmin, Andre Abdool made a solo move to the front, but he was wheeled in at the Soesdyke/Timehri junction, before Scott Savory suffered a spill and subsequently a fractured collar bone shortly after that, in the vicinity of Coverden.

The riders overcame the shock of seeing their rival on the ground and continued their competitive journey, before the Prospect spill that involved the Hinds sibling and Gafoor, with all the riders going back into their saddles, after suffering minor abrasions to their legs and forearms.
Geron Williams decided he had enough and as they passed the Demerara Harbour Bridge, made his move to the front of the peloton and enjoyed a lead of approximately 150 meters, before he was wheeled in at the entrance to Cool Square Nightclub on Mandela Avenue.
From there onwards, everyone was sizing up each other for the sprint to the finish line and this was where Orville Hinds, jumped the peloton and made an unanswered move to the front, to claim the final stage.
However, his timings for the win was not enough to dethrone the 19 year old Jeffrey of Team Coco, who earlier this year was crowned the National Road Race and Time Trial champion, from the pole position for the event.
Jeffrey recorded a winning time of 10h. 05mins: 33secs to take the top podium spot and US$1,000 and trophy which came along with it, leaving the 2007 champion Alanzo Greaves in second place, 52 seconds behind, with his Team Coco’s teammate Darren Matthews third, a further 25 seconds behind Greaves.
Williams, Godfrey Pollydore, Orville Hinds, Paul DeNobrega, Robin Persaud, defending champion Jaime Ramirez and Eastman, completed the top 10 paying positions behind Jeffrey, Greaves and Matthews in the respective order, with a time deficit of 4m: 23secs separating Jeffrey from Eastman.
Raymond ‘Steely’ Newton, who finished the five stages with a time of 10h. 9mins. 57 seconds, did enough to take the top podium spot in the Veteran’s category ahead of Junior Niles who was 36 seconds slower and Ralph Williams who was 4mins and 19 seconds slower than Niles.
Eastman took the Junior category with his time of 10h. 09mins: 56seconds, which was one second faster than the time for both Shaquille Agard and Akeem Arthur of Linden Bauxite Flyers Cycle Club (LBFCC), with Agard being given the runner-up position after he finished ahead of his teammate in the final stage yesterday.
Of the 30 prime prizes –six per stage- that was up for grabs, Jeffrey rode off with 5, Paul DeNobrega 4, Williams, Matthews, Ramirez and Greaves 3 each, Eric Sankar 2 and Eastman, King, Samuel Barker, Rastaff O’Selmo, John Charles, Paul Choo-Wee-Nam one each, while top three winners of each stage was rewarded with the stage winner being the recipient of a jersey.
At the brief presentation ceremony that followed, Dr. Anthony, Director of Sport Neil Kumar and president of the Guyana Cycling Federation Cheryl Thompson, lauded all who made the event a successful one, while they took the time to inform the cyclists of next year’s event (more of this will be in tomorrow’s edition of Chronicle Sport).
Also receiving special prizes from Dr. Anthony were Kravitz Jeffrey of LBFCC and Continental Cycle Club’s Naomi Singh, who was a double recipient for her participation in the event as the lone female and her commitment shown to completing the event.