ALL plans are in place for the staging of the Guyana Cycling Federation’s (GCF) 2016 National Cycling Championships set to wheel off tomorrow in the village of Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara.According to the organisers, the federation has set the female time trials for tomorrow, beginning at 10:00hrs and will see the local-based ladies tackle three-time winner of the event, United Kingdom-based Guyanese, Claire Fraser-Green, who is most likely sure to make a successful defence of her time trial title.
Tomorrow also, the ladies, boys, juniors and juveniles as well as the male veterans Under-45 and Over-45 will battle for honours in the road races.
The ladies will contest a 21.2-mile (four laps), while the juvenile boys will contest a 26.5-mile (five laps) race.
The junior boys as well as the two categories of the veterans will battle over 42.4 miles (eight laps).
Fraser-Green, who is already back in Guyana to defend her two titles, is highly favoured to do so as on the local scene, the locally based ladies are under pressure to turn in any performance of merit.
Junior Niles who won the veterans’ Under-45 road race last year is expected to defend his title come tomorrow, as he has been dominating that category since the 2016 season got underway in January. So too is Linden Blackman, who is in far better form than the rest of his Over-45 counterparts.
The junior category will definitely see a battle between Raphael Leung and Andrew Hicks as these two athletes are both `firing on all cylinders’.
The winner of each category will be presented with championship jerseys that were presented to the GCF by members of the Guyana Cycle Association of North America.
The championships will continue on June 25 with the individual time trials for juvenile and junior boys as well as the veterans and the men Elite cyclists, and these will be staged around the Mahaicony circuit as well.
On June 26, the Elite cyclists will battle for honours in a 71.1-mile (30 laps) road race which will be staged around the outer circuit of the National Park, commencing on Irving Street at 11:00hrs with a roll start and concluding at the same point.
Hamza Eastman is the defending champion of both the Elite time trial and the road race.
Meanwhile, all cyclists are asked to note that transportation to Mahaica will leave the Ministry of Sport, Homestretch Avenue at 07:45hrs tomorrow and the various events will start adjacent to the Mahaicony Community Centre at 10:00hrs.