NEWLY-APPOINTED National Sports Commission chairman Ivan Persaud yesterday sent off the cyclists to Berbice for the start of the Tour of Guyana five-stage cycle road race and wished them all well in their quest for victory.In a brief address to the cyclists and officials, Persaud, a former national footballer, expressed the hope that the cyclists will abide by the rules and regulations governing the sport and will pay keen attention to health and safety during the gruelling five-stage event, which for the past years was known as the `Ride for Life’ five-stage race, and was then sponsored by the Ministry of Health, through its HIV/AIDS programme.
This year’s Tour of Guyana is being sponsored by the National Sports Commission with part sponsorship from beverage giant Banks DIH Limited.
Persaud warned that the cyclists cannot afford to miss water stations as it will be bad for their health.
He stressed the point that there is nothing in life that does not have rules and regulations.
At the time he was reminding members of Team Coco’s pulling out of the race last year because of a five-second point deduction, after the fourth stage, when there was an infringement of the rules by the team and they pulled out of the event even though they were way ahead of the other participants. “This is bad for the sport,” Persaud stressed.
He urged the local cyclists to not allow foreign cyclists to `come in your own backyard’ and beat you.
As of yesterday, 13 foreign cyclists have been registered, including Cuban and Colombian cyclists based in Miami, USA and who are all members of the nine-member Team Coco’s team.
Five are from Suriname, two from Barbados, one from Grenada, one from Jamaica and another from Antigua.
NSC’s Administrative Officer, Gervy Harry, who chaired the proceedings, promised that the `Tour of Guyana will continue as the years go by and it is his desire to see it getting bigger and even attracting more foreign cyclists, making it a truly international event.
In brief remarks, race organiser Hassan Mohamed stressed the importance for cyclists to reach the starting line as early as possible, to get their names registered and he warned that should any of them not adhere to this rule, they will be disqualified forthwith.
The race pedals off from outside the Corriverton police station at 07:30hrs this morning with the stage ending at Main and Alexander Streets, New Amsterdam.
Stage two will start at 14:00hrs from the Rosignol Stelling and will conclude on Carifesta Avenue today also.
Tomorrow’s third stage starts from outside the Wales Police Station, West Bank Demerara at 09:00hrs and ends at Bushy Park, East Bank Essequibo.
From there the cyclists will journey to the Essequibo Coast for stage four which starts at 07.30hrs on Saturday from Supenaam, proceed to Charity and return to finish at Suddie, Essequibo Coast.
The final stage is set to wheel off at 08:30hrs on Sunday from Kara Kara, Linden Highway and conclude on Homestretch Avenue.
The defending champion is Robin Persaud who clocked 10 hours 26 minutes .06 seconds last year.
However, the record holder for the event is Jaime Ramirez of Colombia who in 2012 returned nine hours 46 minutes 51 seconds for the gruelling event.

By Michael DaSilva