BERBICE cyclist Andrew Hicks dominated the feature 35-lap event of the Payless Variety Sponsored 11-race cycle programme in the National Park yesterday, winning the event in a time of one hour 26 minutes .07 seconds.From the start of the feature event, Hicks stuck with a bunch which included Marlon `Fishy’ Williams, Orville Hinds, Paul DeNobrega, Paul Cho-Wee-nam and Alonzo Greaves, but after completing 24 laps around the inner circuit of the National Park, Hicks changed gear and broke from the pack and with nine laps remaining, he established a healthy lead over the others that seemed to be playing the `cat and mouse’ game and opened an almost half mile lead over them.
With seven laps remaining, Hicks was a mere 350 metres behind those that were chasing them.
Hicks connected to Cho-Wee-Nam who seemed to have been struggling at the time during the 28th-lap of the 35-lap event and together they worked in tandem and closed in on the chasing pack with hicks’ intention supposedly being to lap (overtake) them.
The chasing pack, on realizing that Hicks was close on their heels to overtake them, then changed into overdrive and pulled away from being embarrassed.
With three laps remaining, Hicks continued his dominance and caught up with the chasing pack with only one and one half laps remaining and stuck with them for the remainder of the race and in the end, breezed home an easy winner.
In the battle for the other top five positions, the sprint for the finish line started approximately 200 metres from the finish by Williams but at the 125-metre mark, Alonzo Greaves broke from the rear of the pack and crossed the finish line ahead of Orville Hinds, Williams, Cho-Wee-Nam and Paul DeNobrega respectively.
Williams won three of the eight prime prizes that were up for grabs, while Hicks won two.
DeNobrega, Cho-Wee-Nam and Akeem Wilkinson won one each.
Hicks however had to settle for second in the 10-lap event for juvenile. This race was won by Nigel DeDeGoed, while Christopher Griffith placed third.
In other results, Ronaldo Narine won the three-lap race for boys and girls 12-14 years of age. Second was Adeli Hodge.
The five-lap race for veterans under 50 years of age was won by Eon `Dumb Boy’ Jackson. Second was Jaikaran Sukhai and finishing third was Shameer Baksh.
Linden Blackman was the only rider in the 50 years and over five-lap race and he romped home an easy winner.
John Niles won the two-lap race for BMX boys 6-9 years old ahead of Shane Sue-Han and Antoine Van Denburgh respectively.
Sieon Chee won the two-lap race for BMX boys 9-12 years old ahead of Zab James and Sue-Han respectively, while Hodge won the three-lap race for the 12-14 age group.
The five-lap race for mountain bikers was won by Seon Budhan. Second was Nicholas Alphonso.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, race organizer Hassan Mohamed thanked the sponsor and athletes for making the race a success. He said it was his final race in the National Park for the 2015 cycle season and wished them the best for the 2016 season.
A representative of Payless Variety Store who was on hand to assist with the presentation of prizes to the respective winners, echoed Mohamed’s sentiments about the athletes’ participation in the event and promised that come next year, the programme will be bigger and better

(Michael DaSilva).