By Emmerson Campbell
“And the winner is Robin Persaud”. Those words have been mentioned so frequently for the past year that it just seems to just roll off the tongues of the organizers of cycling events.
Yesterday when RRT Enterprises and Hassan Mohamed teamed up to pedal off their inaugural 11-race youth cycling programme at the National Park, Persaud, Guyana’s most consistent cyclist rode away with the trophy for the feature 35-lap event in a familiar affluent fashion .
Persaud, 37, arguably one of Guyana’s most talented cyclists, blitzed a star-studded field to add another first place trophy to his already bulging collection when he stopped the clock at one hour, 18 minutes and 17 seconds
The national cyclist also took home five of the eight prime prizes. One prime went to second place finisher Geron Williams, one prime also went to Linden’s Rastaff O’Selmo who finished fifth and sixth place finisher Enzo Matthews.
National cyclist, Alonzo Greaves was edged out by Williams in a sprint to the line and had to settle for third while this year’s Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships bronze medalist, Raynauth Jeffrey, pedaled in fourth.
The event, which attracted 32 riders, started off at a high pace with Persaud separating from the rest of the field from as early as lap two.
Persaud would enjoy the lead for the next eight laps until he was caught by Jeffrey, Greaves, Williams, Oselmo, Matthews, Jude Bentley and Marlon Williams.
This group of eight riders formed a lead pack and worked together to steadily increase the lead on the rest of the starters.
By the 15 lap some riders were lapped by the lead pack and they subsequently had to dismount their saddles.
As the pace of the lead pack increased more and more, riders were lapped or either dropped out before being lapped and at the 25th lap, the race only had the eight lead riders.
At this point it was every man for himself and the eight cyclists played the ‘cat and mouse’ game.
With six laps to go the riders were still bunched up in a pack but Persaud changed gears with intentions of separating from the rest of the riders. He did not get too far as the other cyclists responded and reconnected with Persaud.
Two laps later however, Persaud pounced on the riders again and never looked back.
At the bell lap, an attack led by Greaves tried valiantly to catch Persaud but the national cyclist’s fitness and speed enabled him to hold off the challengers.
Adrian Sharma won the BMX boys’ 12-to-14 years, three-lap race ahead of Yusuff Latiff and Shamar Dass respectively while Keon Harris took top honours in the BMX boys’ nine-to-12 years, two-lap race ahead of Rashedi Ceres and Tharan Gharbarran respectively.
Junior Niles rode off with the veteran’s under-50, five–lap, first place trophy and the prime prize in 13 minutes and one second beating Kennard Lovell and Shameer Baskh who were second and third respectively.
Cleveland King took top honours in the three-lap BMX boys Open race ahead of brothers Adrian and Ricardo Sharma
In the 12-to-14-years, boys and girls’ three-lap race, Alfie Sonaram took home the winner’s trophy and the while Hazina Barrett (prime prize winner) and Naomi Singh occupied the next two spots.
In the five-lap veteran’s over-50 race, Lancelot Rose was first followed by Wilfred Thom. Rose and Thom were the only starters for the event.
Harry Lall got the better of rival Maurice Fagundes to take the top honours in the veteran’s over-60 years’ race. Lall and Fagundes were also the only starters for that event
Junior star rider Raynauth Jeffrey won the juniors and juveniles’ 10-lap race and the prime prize in a time of 23 minutes and six seconds ahead of Kurt LaRose Ambrose and Mario King. Gold medalist at the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships, Paul DeNobrega however took home the two primes that were up for grabs.
The race for the upright cyclists was won by Richard Charles while Keon Thomas and Ozia McCauley placed second and third respectively. McCauley also rode off with the prime prize.
The two-lap BMX boy’s six-to-nine year’s race was won by Isaiah Sahadeo with and his brother Ken Sahadeo pedalling in second while Jeremiah Harrison finished third.
At the prize giving ceremony, Mohamed thanked CEO of RRT Enterprises Sean Ramrattan for the sponsorship of the event and the cyclists for participating in the meet and making the programme a success.
Mohamed also intimated that next week’s programme will be sponsored by Laparkan Group of Companies.
Ramrattan handed out the prime prizes as well as the trophies to the winners and the runners-up of the events.
In brief remarks the RRT Enterprises boss congratulated all the cyclists for their participation and pledged his company’s continued support for the sport of cycling.
