BERBICE cyclist Romello Crawford won the feature 35-lap event for school boys, novices and invitational riders when cycle coach Hassan Mohamed organised the 12th annual Demerara Distillers Limited’s (DDL) 11-race cycle programme in the National Park yesterday.
Crawford recorded a time of one hour 16 minutes 24 seconds in edging professional cyclist Geron Williams to take top honours. Finishing third was Stephano Husbands who also won three of the eight prime prizes that were up for grabs.
Williams won one prime while Jamal John,who failed to place among the top six finishers,won four.
From the start of the race, Williams, Husbands, Crawford, John, Alonzo Ambrose and Raphael Leung went on a break and shared the lead for the first 21 laps of the 35-lap event, but it was during the 22nd lap that John, Ambrose and Leung were dropped and the other three cyclists worked in tandem to the finish.
On hearing the bell for the final lap, Williams stepped up the pace of the race but was pursued by Crawford and Husbands.
With approximately 350 metres remaining, Husbands surged to the front followed by Crawford.With approximately 125 metres left for the finish line, Williams jumped the other two riders and rounding the home turn, Crawford followed and out-sprinted Williams to the line.
In other results, David Hicks won the three-lap race for boys and girls 12-14 years of age ahead of Jonathan Ramsuchit and Jomar Holigan respectively.
Junior Niles won the five-lap event for veterans under 50 years of age. Second was Ian Jackson and finishing third was Sybrone Fernandes.
The veterans’ five-lap race for 50 years and over riders was won by Kennard Lovell while Linden Blackman placed second.
Curtis Dey won the 10-lap race for juveniles ahead of Brighton John and Adelei Hodge respectively, while C. Archer was the winner of the five-lap event for mountain bikers. Stephon Gobin was second.
The BMX two- lap race for boys aged six to nine years was won by Jose Rodrigues. Second was Jarret Barrington and finishing third was Junior Niles Jr.
