Team Coco’s Raynauth Jeffrey out pedaled a field of Guyana’s premier wheelsmen yesterday to ride off with the spoils of the feature 35-lap event of the 14th annual Degree 11-race programme.
In perfect conditions for racing at the National Park, the national cyclist raced to pole position in one hour, 16 minutes and 20 seconds, almost eight minutes faster than last year’s winning time (1h:24m:17s) recorded by veteran Stephan Fernandes.
The reigning Time-Trial champion led the evergreen Robin Persaud and his club mate, Hamza Eastman onto the podium.
Former national cyclist, Enzo Matthews, Team United’s Mario King and Team Alanis’ captain, Paul Choo-Wee-Nam placed fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Eastman, however, pocketed all but one of the eight sprint prizes with the other going to Persaud.
The feature rolled off at a blistering pace with the17 starters all looking to seize the advantage. Several groups of riders staged mini breaks but were eventually wheeled in by the chase peloton. Jeffrey tried a solo attack in lap 30 but the peloton reconnected with him three laps later.
At the bell lap however, Jeffrey changed gears and never looked back to win his fifth race of the year. The only theatrics that came at the end of the event was the photo sprint finish for second and third between Persaud and Eastman who crossed the line 20 seconds after Jeffrey.
Before the signature event, there were 10 other races.
Here is a summary of them:
Boys and Girls 12-14
Toshwanna Doris, Ronella Samuels
Veterans Over 50
Linden Blackman
Vets Under 50
Jaikarran Sukhai, Kennard Lovell, Linden Blackman
Veterans Over 60
Monty Parris, Maurice Fagundes
Juveniles
Jamal John, Alonzo Ambrose, Christopher Griffith
Mountain Bike
Adrian Sharma, Charles Ketwaroo, Stephan Gobin
BMX Boys 6-9
Jeremiah Harrison, Alex Leung, Christopher Goring
BMX Boys 9-12
Sherwin Sampson, Jeremiah Harrison, Alex Leung
BMX Boys 12-14
Sherwin Sampson, Thuran Garbarran
BMX Open
Adrian Sharma
At the completion of the programme, brief remarks were made by coordinator, Hassan Mohamed and representatives of DeSinco Trading, distributors of the Degree product line.
Eight-year old Christopher Goring was also presented with a new BMX cycle compliments of former national rider Jude Bentley of The Bike Shop.
The wheelsmen will return to the National Park this morning to compete in the lucrative Alanzo Greaves Dash for Cash event.
Today’s event pedals off at 08:00hrs. (Emmerson Campbell)
