TEAM Coco’s Jamal John returned one hour 35 minutes 19 seconds in winning the Banks DIH Limited- sponsored 40-mile cycle road race under its PowerAde brand yesterday in the West Demerara area.

The race which was originally slated for 50 miles from Wales to Parika and back to Schoonord near the Demerara harbor Bridge, saw instead the participants moving off from the designated starting point in a roll start and the participants got the green flag from the entrance of the Harbour Bridge from where the bunch stuck together on both the upward and downward journey.

It was with approximately 400 metres remaining that Walter Grant Stuart and Silvio Inniss jumped the pack and opened a small lead which was short lived as Paul DeNobraga, Geron Williams and John responded and sailed past Grant-Stuart and Inniss and headed to the line.
Nearing the end, John, who won the event last year, surged ahead of DeNobrega and Williams to win from Team Evolution’s DeNobrega and Continental Cycle Club’s Williams.
Akeem Wilkinson, Grant-Stuart and Inniss placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
During the course of the event, Jernel Yearwood won two of the eight prime prizes that were up for grabs, while John, Christopher Griffith, Williams, Deoraj Garbarran, Mark Harris and DeNobrega won one each.

According to reports, there were no breaks during the course of the race as the riders were tightly knitted throughout the entire 40 miles.
John won the event last year, but that time the event was a 50-mile event and the reason for reducing the distance is unknown.

In other results, Nigel Duguid won the junior category ahead of Briton John and Adelie Hodge respectively, while Warren Mckay won the veterans’ category ahead of Junior Niles and Ian `Dumb Boy’ Jackson, in that order.
The mountain bike category was won by Talim Shaw. Second was Julio Melville and finishing third was Ozia McAullay.

The activity was organized by cycling coach Hassan Mohamed who thanked the participants for their involvement in the race and promised two more events before the season ends next month.
The presentation of prizes to the respective winners was done by Banks DIH’s PowerAde brand manager, Errol Nelson.