FOLLOWING an executive meeting held last Tuesday, the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) has confirmed the routes and dates for this year’s National Cycling Championships, in which Commonwealth Games selectee Raynauth ‘Obeah Man’ Jeffrey is the defending Time Trial and Road Race champion.

This year’s championships will be held over two days, with the time trials for Junior, Senior, Veterans, Ladies and Juvenile cyclists taking place on Saturday, June 28, from Long Creek on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, proceeding to Loo Creek and back to the place of origin for the finish. Cyclists are asked to be at the starting point for 09:00hrs.
The following day, the National Road Race championships will pedal off from Homestretch Avenue at 07:00hrs, with registration starting at 06:00hrs. Cyclists will proceed to four different turn-back points on the highway, according to the category of riders.
The seniors will proceed to Kairuni Creek and return to Homestretch Avenue, covering exactly 100 miles, while the juniors will turn at the Police Outpost on the highway and return to starting point, for a distance of 60 miles.
The veterans and female riders will turn back at Kuru Kuru and head to Georgetown, covering a distance of 45 miles, while the juveniles will turn back at Coverden, for a distance of 40 miles.
Improved times should be the order of the day for this year’s championships, especially with the participation of some of the cyclists who have been chosen by the GCF to compete in next month’s Commonwealth Games set for Glasgow, Scotland from July 23 to August 3.
At the moment, Jeffrey, and his national teammates in Alanzo Greaves, Geron ‘Super Buck’ Williams, Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams, Scott Savory and United Kingdom-based Claire Fraser-Greene, are undergoing intense preparations for the Games.
Riding for Team Coco’s (Guyana), the 20-year-old Jeffrey clocked an overall time of 3h: 48m:40.71secs to take last year’s national road race from Greaves, who stopped the clock three minutes later followed by Greaves’ Roraima Bikers Club teammate Warren McKay.
In the Junior division Michael Anthony emulated Jeffrey by copping both the time trial and the road race, clocking 2h 59m 36secs for the former ahead of Shaquille Agard and Hamzah Eastman.
Naomi Singh of East Coast Demerara finished almost two minutes ahead of Linden’s Hazina Barrett to cop the female title, while England-based Fraser-Greene, who won in 2012, occupied third spot.
The top three finishers in the Veterans Over-45 race were Ian Jackson, Raymond Newton and Gary Benjamin, while Junior Niles comfortably won the Veterans Under-45 ahead of Ralph Williams and Sybourne Fernandes.

(Calvin Roberts)