By Emmerson Campbell
Carlton Wheelers Cycle Club rider Robin Persaud made it two in a row yesterday by speeding off with the winner’s trophy of the eighth annual Reagan Rodrigues Memorial 50-mile cycle road race.
The event, which pedaled off at Wales Police Station, saw the cyclists proceeding to Bushy Park before the race concluded at the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
The race was held in memory of Rodrigues the founder of the club and former president of the Guyana Cycling Federation.
Persaud stopped the clock at one hour, 52 minutes and 41 seconds some eight minutes better than his winning time last year.
Rodrigues, who passed away in 2004, would have been proud of Persaud and another Carlton Wheelers product junior star Raynauth Jeffrey who finished second overall while retaining his junior title.
Persaud and Jeffrey also copped a sprint prize each.
Junior rider Paul DeNobrega, Jude Bentley, Alonzo Greaves and Lindener Rastaff O’Selmo rounded out the top six.
Bentley also copped three sprint prizes while two went to Greaves and one to DeNobrega.
In the veterans category, Talim Shaw took top honours ahead of Shameer Baskh and Ravendra Ramnarine respectively.
Walter Isaacs was the first over-60 rider to cross the line and in the process retained last year’s title. In the boys and girls mixed event, Naomi Singh took the winning spoils ahead of Alfie Sonaram.
At the presentation ceremony, the winners and runners up were presented with food hampers and trophies by members of Rodrigues’ family and representatives of Ricks and Sari, the company that sponsored the event.
Brief congratulatory remarks were also made to the cyclist for making the event a success by organizer of the race National Cycling Coach Hassan Mohamed and Director of Sport, Neil Kumar.
