By Emmerson Campbell
David Santos from Team CoCo’s starts today’s third and final leg
of the 30th annual three stage road race in the lead position after two stages and 106 miles were covered yesterday.
Santos, who is part of Team CoCo’s Miami, Florida eight-man semi professional team, followed his team mate Frank Travieoso’s first stage win by sprinting away from local junior star Raynauth Jeffrey to claim top honours and the overall lead in the second stage. Santos’ second stage winning time was two hours, 18 minutes and 38 seconds.
Jeffrey prevented Team CoCo from sweeping the top four positions for the second leg as Santos’ teammates Maikel Matas and last year’s winner Yosmani Pol occupied the third and fourth spots respectively.
The 46-mile first stage began at Corriverton with 91 riders and ended at New Amsterdam. The 60-mile second stage started at Rosignol and concluded at Carifesta Avenue.
Santos, who posted a bunch time of one hour, 42 minutes and 41 seconds in the first stage after the top four of Travieoso (one hour, 41minutes and 38 seconds) CoCo’s Ivan Dominguez, Heat Waves’ Marlo Rodman and Alonzo Greaves respectively started the second stage at a blistering pace and never relinquished the lead.
The initial stage began at a fair pace with Jeffrey and Santos seizing the initiative as they enjoyed a lead of their own until they were caught by Santos’ teammates Ivan Dominguez, Travieoso, Geron Williams, Greaves, Robin Persaud, Trinidadian Rodman and Barbadian Darren Matthews at the Number 19 public road.
The pace gradually increased and the lead peloton opened a sizeable lead on the rest of the field.
This group journeyed together up to 250 metres before the finish line and, at this point, a fierce sprint ensued for first place.
The riders rose from their saddles but the sprint ace Travieoso edged out his teammate Dominguez.
Stage 2
Stage two can be described as an action replay of the first stage as Santos and Jeffery started at a steaming pace just as they did in the initial stage. The only difference was that they would not be overtaken. Stage two started at 14:00 hrs from Rosignol and concluded at the Carifesta Sports Complex.
Santos, along with 17-year-old Jeffrey, separated themselves from the group and had their own race throughout the gruelling 60 miles. The duo sustained a shocking 50 km per hour pace for 90 per cent of the stage as they steadily increased their lead over their rivals.
Jeffrey and Santos worked as a two-man team and opened up a lead of one minute and 22 seconds on the field by the time they reached Mon Repos.
As the finish line neared ,their lead would dwindle to mere seconds as Greaves, Persaud, Williams, Matas, Pol, 2010 winner Warren’40’ McKay and others in the chasing pack worked to catch the duo.
Matas and Pol closed the gap agonizingly close at Vlissengen road but Jeffrey and Santos held on and Santos eventually out sprinted Jeffrey to the line. The bunch, which included Greaves, Persaud, McKay, Dominguez, McKay and others, clocked a time of two hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds.
The final stage which starts at Kara Kara, Linden will begin at 08:00 hrs with the cyclists riding from Linden and finishing in Georgetown, a distance of some 64 miles.
Pol was dominant last year, winning the first two stages, in a time of one hour, 38 minutes, 31 seconds (1: 38: 31) and two hours, 15 minutes, 31 seconds (2: 15: 31) respectively.
All top 10 finishers will receive cash prizes and trophies.
