… Hicks, Teixeira are champion cyclists

By Mike DaSilva

DISTRICT SIX (Corentyne) made a successful defence of the Ministry of Education/Guyana Teachers Union’s National Cycling Championship title they won last year, through outstanding performances from Andrew Hicks and Shenika Teixeira yesterday when the road race aspect of the championship was held.
Hicks, a seasoned national cyclist, made light work of the opposition in the Boys’ Open 40K road race, while Teixeira was unchallenged in winning the Girls’ Open 25K race.

The win for Hicks and Teixeira gave District Six a massive 20 points and when added to the seven points of third-place finisher Curtis Dey for the District Six, the lead was unattainable for District 10 (Upper Damerara/Kwakwani) who, like last year, had to settle for second.
Apart from winning yesterday’s road race, Hicks, who is in tremendous form at the moment, having just completed the 2016 Guyana Cycling Federation-approved cycling season, also won the 1 000, 2 000, 3 000 and 5 000-metre track races which were staged around the inner circuit of the National Park on Tuesday. Therefore, he is undoubtedly the Champion cyclist for the 56th annual event.

Last year, Hicks was also crowned Champion cyclist after winning the 1 000, 3 000 and 5 000-metre races as well as the `Devil Takes the Hindmost event and placed third in the 40K road race which was won by Akeem Agard.
Like Hicks, Teixeira who won yesterday’s 25K road race will undoubtedly be crowned Champion female cyclist after winning the Girls’ open 1500, 2 000 and 3 000-metre track races on Tuesday also. The four victories earned the District 40 valuable points.
According to Hicks, after being sent on their way from outside the Ocean View International Hotel yesterday morning for the road race, everyone was fighting for position while he sat calmly in the midst of the bunch biding his time to make a move.

As the bunch passed through Sparendaam, he jumped the pack and, as no one responded, he just powered away at a moderate pace. But after turning back at Belfield, East Coast Demerara, he changed gears and built up his pace and crossed the finish line more than one minute ahead of the second-place finisher Adelie Hodge of District 11 (North Georgetown).
Dey was a short distance away in third, then came District 10’s Jernel Yearwood.
In the Girls’ event, the race went off at a snail’s pace judging from national standards and while on the upward journey to the turn-back point at Strathspey, pre-race favourite Whitney Poyer (District Six) fell off her cycle and failed to reconnect to the leading group that was headed by Teixeira. She failed to finish among the top four finishers.
She, however, secured a valuable five points in finishing fourth overall.