Last year’s most successful cyclist, Robin Persaud, powered to his sixth win of the season by outlasting this year’s most successful, Alanzo Greaves to claim the ninth annual Laparkan Holdings Limited feature 35-lap event in the National Park yesterday.
Persaud, 38, winner of 15 races last year, stopped the clock at one hour, 18 minutes and 16 seconds to repeat as champion in the event.
The former national captain, who also won a sprint prize, led the in-form Greaves, winner of 13 feature races this season and top veteran Godfrey Pollydore onto the podium.
Team Coco’s, Junior Niles, Paul Choo-Wee-Nam and Greaves’ Roraima Bikers Club mate, Raymond ‘Steely’ Newton rounded out the top six.
Greaves (one), Pollydore (three) and Newton (two) also carted off sprint prizes.
The event started off at a fair pace but after six laps, Newton and Niles changed gears and separated from the rest of the 26 starters.
However, the two leaders were pursued and caught by the peloton comprising Greaves, Pollydore, Persaud and Choo-Wee-Nam who connected two laps later.
The six riders despite being valiantly chased by United Cycle Club mates Albert Philander and Hamzah Eastman, Junior Sportsman of the Year, Paul DeNobrega and national road race champion, Raynauth Jeffrey, increased their lead by riding as a unit until the final 400 metres.
At this point Persaud surprisingly rose from his saddle, took the lead and never relinquished it, holding off the sprint aces Greaves and Pollydore in the process.
Before the feature event, Niles rode off with the veteran’s under-50, five–lap, first place trophy and the sprint prize, beating arch rivals Kennard Lovell and Thuran Harris who were second and third respectively.
Romelo Crawford won the BMX boy’s 12-to-14 years Boys and Girls five-lap race and sprint prize ahead of Alfie Sonoram and Jamal John respectively while Stephan Wilkinson took top honours in the BMX boy’s nine-to-12 years, two-lap race ahead of Amo Gomes and Tariq Khan respectively.
Jamal John however took top honours in the three-lap BMX boys Open race ahead of Adrian Sharma and Daniel Fraser.
In the five-lap veterans’ over-50 race, Linden Blackman was first followed by Kenneth Meji and Courtney Hackett.
Maurice Fagundes was the only entrant in the over-60 years race and subsequently rode off with the spoils.
The race for the Mountain Bikers was won by Richard Charles with Kester Croal biking in second. Charles and Croal were the only two finishers for the event.
The two-lap BMX boys’ six-to-nine year’s race was again dominated by Sherwin Sampson while Tyan Nunes and five-year old Alex Leung, pedaled in second and third in that order.
The event was organized by Hassan Mohamed. At the prize giving ceremony Mohamed thanked the representatives of the Laparkan Holdings Limited for sponsoring the event and the cyclists for participating in the meet and making the programme a success.
Mohamed also stated that his next programme will also be staged in the National Park on October 12 under the sponsorship of Hand-in-Hand Insurance Company.
