Christopher Holder in a time of 10:32:90 won the junior time trial organized by the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) in preparation for the upcoming Junior Caribbean Championship set for July 11-12 in Curacao.
Amidst some light showers which could have served as a blessing in disguise, Holder was the fifth cyclist to be sent on his way by the starter and he wasted no time in setting the course from in front of the Ocean View Hotel at Liliendaal to Sparendam Police station and back to the Bel Air gas station for the finish.
Jason Pollydore, younger brother of Godfrey Pollydore was the first cyclist to cover the distance, doing so in a time of 12:42:03s. He was followed by Geron Williams who completed the distance in 10:45:17s to temporarily hold onto the leader’s position until it was Holder’s turn.
Berbician Neil Reece was the third cyclist to face the starter and he fared better than Pollydore when he clocked 11:18:71s whilst Danny Ramchurjee who was making a comeback to competitive cycling completed his tour in 11:10:93s.
Holder was next to go and he immediately brought down the timings of Williams to end up as the top man, a position the other two riders namely Enzo Matthews (11:00:65) and the lone female competitor Naomi Singh (13:39:45) were unable to take from him.
Today cyclists in the junior, senior and veteran categories respectively will take to the road for the national road race championships.
Holder is the defending champion in the junior category and will be hard pressed by Williams, Ramchurgee, Matthews, Reece and Christopher Persaud, who did not participate yesterday, to retain that title.
Judged from the performance to date of Darren Allen, Junior Niles, Leer Nunes, John Charles, Robin Persaud along with Warren Mc Kay, Jaikarran Sukhai and even Holder at times, defending champion Alonzo Greaves will certainly have to work overtime if he intends to retain his title as road race champion in the senior category.
Linden Blackman and Kennard Lovell have an ongoing battle in the veteran division in cycling and this will no doubt continue today, as Blackman is out to prove to Lovell who is the defending champion, who is the better cyclist.
However, Virgil Jones, Compton Persaud, Shameer Baksh and Aubrey Greavsande are all worthy competitors and certainly it should not be a two-person event.