BERBICE cyclist Romello Crawford easily won the Guyana Cycling Federation’s (GCF) third points race for the 2017 season, returning a time of three hours, 04.11 seconds to earn 15 points for the win.
Crawford’s Berbice counterpart Curtis Dey finished second and was one length behind Crawford crossing the finish line.
There were 28 cyclists who faced the starter at the Ocean View International Hotel, East Coast Demerara, and after being sent on their way to the Abary Bridge, East Coast Demerara and back to the place of origin for the finish, the pack of cyclists took their time riding at about 27 miles an hour and on their way up to Abary Bridge, there were several attempts by some cyclists to attack, but the peloton was right on their (attackers) back wheel, preventing any break from being established.
On turning back for the downward journey, Crawford and Dey made a break and was followed by Mario King and Alonzo Ambrose who both failed in their effort to connect and the duo of Crawford and Dey worked in tandem until the final 100 metres when Crawford surged ahead of Dey and won by a length quite comfortably.
For the win, Crawford earned 15 points while Dey received 12 points; but the duo are still way behind Jamal John, who is leading on the GCF’s points standing and who has won the first two points races and has accumulated 30 points to date.
John was not a part of yesterday’s event since he, like team United’s Andrew Hicks and Hamza Eastman, are campaigning in the United States.
The other top eight places yesterday were occupied by Mario King, Alonzo Ambrose, Leer Nunes, Ian `Dumb Boy’ Jackson, Jaikarran Sukhai, Warren McKay, Deoraj Garbarran, Junior Niles, Nigel Dugid and Jason Cameron respectively.
Of the 10 prime prizes that were up for grabs, Crawford won four while Andre Green and Dey won two each. Niles and Ambrose won one each.
Close on John’s wheel in the points standing with 20 points from two third place finishes in the previous two races is Hicks.
Following Hicks is Raphael Leung with 13 points, Paul DeNobrega (12) and Briton John (12).
Hamza Eastman is next with 10 points, but like Hicks, he too is campaigning on the US circuit.
Leer Nunes and Junior Niles also have 10 points and they are followed by Ian Jackson (4), Dwayne Gibbs Jr (4), Jason Camereon (3), Eric Sankar (2), Ralph Williams (1) and Everal Murphy (1).
The GCF is using the points system for selecting their national team for Regional and International competitions, despite the selectees not being reigning champions and in some cases, not even being runners-up in national championships, resulting in Guyana being poorly represented at the recently concluded Pan American Road Race Championship that was held in the Dominican Republic.