Albert Philander clocked a time of one hour, 11 minutes and 18 seconds as he sped to an impressive win in this year’s George `Boy Blue’ Cumberbatch Memorial 30-lap feature race inside the National Park Circuit yesterday as the cream of the country’s cyclists all returned to the saddle.
The Roriama Bikers Club member at the start of the race kept in a bunch of ‘big timers’ with the likes of last year’s winner Christopher Holder, Warren ‘40’ McKay, Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams, Alonzo Greaves, 2009 second place finisher Junior Niles, Geron Williams and the ever persistent John Charles just to name a few.
It was never an easy race in the initial stages for the 22 year-old Philander who had to deal with the fast pace of the pack.
But Philander took advantage of the cat and mouse game being played to break away in the 16th lap and never looked back.
Greaves too managed to get away but he was unable to catch the Buxtonian and settled for second place.
McKay was third as he sprinted just before the last turn before the finish line placing ahead of John Charles and Kaieteur Cycling Club’s Daniel Ramchurjee.
Williams showed his superior sprinting power when he rose up from the saddle and shook away from Robin Persaud to round off the top six finishers.
Earlier in the day, Philander had the better of Continental Cycle Club’s Enzo Mathews and Ramchurjee to clinch the category three and four 10-lap race.
Roriama Bikers Cycle Club made a clean sweep of the top three spots in the category one and two 10-lap fixture with Williams winning ahead of Raymond Newton and McKay.
Holder continued his dominance in the Junior and Juveniles division and took the 10-lap race from Continual Cycle Club’s Paul D’ Nobrega and Flying Ace’s Neil Reece.
Robert Beaton won the Veterans Over-50 10 lapper with Monty Parris and Aubrey Gravesande second and third place respectively.
That race was ridden concurrently with the under-50 Veterans where Phillip Piggott had the better of Andrew Spencer and Junior Niles. The mountain bikes race, which was sponsored by Jude Bentley, saw Leer Nunes finishing first and Kester Croc, Richard Charles and Keon Thomas finishing in that order.
The race was held by the Roraima Bikers Club in collaboration with the Guyana Cycling Federation in recognition of former national cyclist Cumberbatch.
