By Emmerson Campbell
The’ Cuban Missile’, Ivan Dominguez of Team Coco exploded in yesterday’s penultimate stage of this year’s sixth annual five stage road race smashing last year stage record en route to crossing the finish line ahead of his teammates who have dominated this year’s event.
Dominguez won the 62-mile event which commenced at 7.30 am at Supenaam and then proceeded to Charity and concluded at the Suddie Public Hospital in two hours, 20 minutes and 38 seconds, bettering the previous record which was set by Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams’ (two hours,35 minutes and one second) last year by almost 15 minutes.
The Cuban’s performance catapulted him into sixth overall after starting the stage in the 10th position.
He led his Coco’s teammates and overall race leaders Jaime Ramirez and Darren Matthews in to the top three. Eric Sankar, Surinamese Moses Ricketts and national cyclist Rastaff Oselmo crossed the finish line in fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively.
Just before the start of the final leg this morning in Linden, Dominguez will be presented with the yellow jersey for winning the penultimate stage.
Barring severe mishaps, Team Coco’s is destined to occupy at least the top three podium places for this year’s event, a testament to their dominating performances throughout the stages.
When today’s final stage commences this morning, Team Coco’s will have four riders starting in the top six overall standings Ramirez (seven hours, 10 minutes and 58 seconds), Matthews (seven hours, 13 minutes and 27 seconds) Raynauth Jeffrey (seven hours, 17 minutes and 22 seconds)and Dominguez (seven hours, 18 minutes and 55 seconds).
Ricketts (seven hours, 18 minutes and 47 seconds) and Oselmo (seven hours, 18 minutes 48 seconds) will start in the fourth and fifth overall positions respectively.
Yesterday’s stage started off at a fair pace with several riders staging numerous unsuccessful breaks until Dominguez and Ramirez staged a successful two-man break at Better Hope on the way back from Charity.
The two teammates rode as a team and steadily increased their lead on the chase peloton. About a mile before the finish line Dominguez and Ramirez had an unassailable two and a half minute lead on the next rider (Matthews) and were perhaps discussing who would take the win.
The duo rode together up until the 50 metres from the finish line. At this point, Ramirez stopped pedaling an allowed his teammate to cross the finish line unchallenged.
Today’s final stage will begin at 8:30 hrs with the cyclists riding from Linden and finishing on Homestretch Avenue in Georgetown (62 miles).
All top 10 finishers will receive cash prizes and trophies.
The top three finishers will receive US$1000, US $750 and US $500 respectively.
Caption Action during yesterday’s penultimate stage of this year’s sixth annual five- stage road race. (Orlando Charles photo)
