By Emmerson Campbell
Jude Bentley’s last name is synonymous with a luxurious automobile so it was only fitting for the 2006 Commonwealth Games cyclist to ride in vintage style.
Yesterday when P&P Insurance Brokers & Consultants Limited and Hassan Mohamed teamed up to pedal off an 11-race youth cycling programme at the National Park, Bentley rode away with the trophy for the feature 35-lap event in affluent fashion.
Bentley, arguably one of Guyana’s most talented cyclists, led Leer Nunes and Raymond ‘Steely’ Newton in lapping almost the entire star-studded field of riders. Only fourth place finisher, junior star rider Raynauth Jeffrey escaped the wrath of Bentley’s, Nunes’ and Newton’s wheels.
Bentley, who won the race in one hour, 18 minutes and 26 seconds also took home three of the eight prime prizes. Three primes went to Nunes while Newton took the other two.
Enzo Matthews and Junior Niles rode in fifth and sixth respectively.
The event, which attracted 37 riders, started off at a high pace with Bentley, Nunes and Newton separating themselves from the rest of the riders after the second lap.
The lead trio worked together to steadily increase their lead on the chase peloton which included Warren ‘40’ McKay, Niles, Matthews, Jeffrey, Marlon ‘ Fishy’ Williams, Alonzo Greaves, Robin Persaud, Eric Sankar, Paul DeNobrega and others.
17-year old Jeffrey staged his own break away and tried valiantly to catch the three leaders, however Bentley, Nunes and Newton was in another zone and by lap 17 all but Jeffrey was lapped.
The three leaders would continue to journey together until the final four laps. At this point Nunes and Bentley opened a slight lead on Newton and had a race of their own. At 100 metres to go, the duo were smiling and cruising saddle to saddle discussing who would take the top honours which went to Bentley by a few inches.
Adrian Sharma won the BMX boys’ 12-to-14 years, three-lap race ahead of Jason Jordan and Christopher Griffith respectively while Jamal Arthur took top honours in the BMX boys’ nine-to-12 years, two-lap race ahead of Briton John and Thuran Gharbarran respectively.
Before the feature event,Niles rode off with the veteran’s under-50, five–lap, first place trophy and the prime prize beating Kennard Lovell and Shameer Baksh who were second and third respectively.
Cleveland King took top honours in the three-lap BMX boys Open race ahead of Adrian Sharma and Christopher Griffith.
In the 12-to-14-years, boys and girls’ three-lap race, Julio Melville took home the winner’s trophy and the prime prize. Naomi Singh was second .Singh and Melville were the only competitors fro the event.
In the five-lap veteran’s over-50 race, Virgil Jones was first followed by Wilfred Thom and Courtney Hackett, respectively.
Maurice Fagundes won the veterans over-60 years’ race ahead of Harry Lall and Krishna Singh.
DeNobrega won the juniors and juveniles’ 10-lap race and the prime prize in a time of 24 minutes and 29 seconds ahead of Jeffrey and Kurt La Rose.
The race for the upright cyclists was won by Keon Thomas who also took the prime prize. Nial Kingston and Christopher Griffith placed second and third respectively.
The two-lap BMX boy’s six-to-nine year’s race was won by Isaiah Sahadeo with Christopher Goring and Richard Nunes pedalling in second and third respectively.
At the prize giving ceremony, Mohamed thanked Managing Director of P&P Insurance Brokers & Consultants Limited Bishwa Panday for the sponsorship of the event for the 12th year and the cyclists for participating in the meet and making the programme a success.
The cyclists will now take their talents to the open road today to compete in a 50-mile road race from Wales to Bushy Park and back to the Demerara Harbour Bridge for the finish. This event will be sponsored by GuyOil.
Panday handed out the prime prizes as well as the trophies to the winners and the runners-up of the events.
Panday in brief remarks also congratulated all the cyclists for their participation and pledged his company’s continued support for cycling and sport in general.
