Eastman out-foxes Williams in tense finish

Team Coco’s Hamza Eastman out-foxed Continental Cycle Club’s Geron `The Lone Soldier’ Williams to win the 5th Annual Mohamed Kadir cycle road race yesterday and in the process was rewarded with the ounce of raw gold first prize.
The event which was organized by the Flying Stars Cycle Club and which started on Homestretch Avenue just after the official 07:30hrs starting time,saw the more than 50 entrants sticking together for almost the entire race.
Several attacks were launched by members of the various teams and on each of these attacks, Williams was the one that responded, in the process bridging the gap between the attacker and the main chasing bunch.
In the end, the bridging by Williams took its toll on his legs as he failed to respond to Eastman’s final attack in the homestretch, approximately 100 meters from the finish line.
After the race, Williams told Chronicle Sport he was fatigued coming to the finish because of all the work he did during the course of the 80-mile event, which wheeled off from Homestretch Avenue, proceeded to Dora on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway and returned to the place of origin for the finish.
Throughout the entire journey, there was never one serious break and after the bunch turned onto the Homestretch Avenue for the finish, they were still together until in the vicinity of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall where Williams got off his saddle and attacked.
Thinking that he had the race covered, Williams decided to coast home,not knowing that the ‘sharking’ Eastman was on his back tire.
Eastman on the other hand capitalized on this, jumping Williams who failed to respond and in the process carted off the once of raw gold.
The winner will have to divide his spoils with his team mates (approximately nine persons), while Williams received $70,000 cash which he does not have to share as he had no teammates to lend assistance.
Eastman’s time for the event was three hours 09 minutes 17 seconds,during which he also won a prime prize worth $1000; Williams also picked up one.
Shaquille Agard placed third and won one prime, while Raul Leal, Stephano Husbands, Junior Niles, Christopher Holder and Paul Cho-Wee-Nam occupied the other top five places respectively.
Raphael Leung, Husbands, Niles, Holder and Cho-Wee-Nam also won one prime each.
Niles, by finishing sixth overall, was the first veteran under 45 years of age to cross the finish line and so won that category ahead of Cho-Wee-Nam and Stephen Fernandes respectively.
Leung was the first junior to cross the finish line, while Jernel Yearwood, Christopher Cornelius and Andrew Hicks placed second, third and fourth respectively.
While the seniors, veterans under 45 and the juniors turned back at Dora, the veterans’ overv 45 years as well as the juveniles and mountain bikers turned back on the first hill pass the Splashmin’s Fun park.Andre Spencer was the first over 45 years cyclist to finish.Second was Kennarl Lovell, while Amrit Sankar finished third.
In the juvenile category, Mario Ellis won ahead of Ronaldo Narine. The other two juveniles who started the race failed to finish.
Julio Melville was the winner of the Mountain Bike category. Second was Oziah McxAulley and placing third was Keon Thomas.