The first day of the 13th Annual Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships in the green town of Bartica yesterday saw Bermuda’s Alexander Miller and Trinidad and Tobago’s Enrique De Comarmond reigning supreme in the Juvenile and Junior Time Trials respectively.
The scorching sun was out in all its glory but hundreds of fans flocked to cheer on their favourite riders who often doused themselves in cold water before heading through the course.
Miller completed the single lap, which saw the riders coming off the ramp at Second Avenue and Third Street, heading east into Third Street, South into Sixth Avenue, through the old housing scheme, into the Bartica Potaro Road and turn around at Three Miles Secondary school, come down to One Mile, take a right into the Arcade, a right into Sixth Street then north into Second Avenue before finishing at Sixth Street junction in 13 minutes, 41 seconds and 93 milliseconds (13:41:93).
After the race, an ecstatic Miller, whose pale skin had turned cherry red from the sun explained, “It was good, hillier than I anticipated and I just gave it my all.
“The conditions are similar to Bermuda, I didn’t find it too hot so this was a comfortable temperature that I normally race in so that was good.”
Heading into today’s road race, Miller added, “When I look at the results it will give me an idea on who to watch out for, possibly form a break and see who’s strong.”
The 16-year-old added: “I’ve been training a lot for the past couple months, most of it has helped me, I’ve done Time Trial training and so to prepare for this, but it was hillier than my Time Trial mock one in Bermuda so the hills kind of threw me off guard and the bumpiness I had to get used to but I did and got through.”
As the riders rolled off the ramp one minute apart, Miller was able to gain time from his Puerto Rican rival after passing him in a dash to the finish.
However, Puerto Rico’s Dexex Sequara completed the lap in 14:44:09 to secure second while Bermuda’s Liam Flannery rounded off the podium with a time of 14:59:36. Guyana’s Jonathan Ramsuchit was the lone rider from the host country among the 11 riders in this category while the Suriname competitor suffered a chain slip.
Meanwhile, in the junior division which featured two laps, De Comarmond improved his third place finish last year to win the event in a time of 27:00:36. He was trailed by last year’s juvenile champion, Bermuda’s Nicholas Narraway who was 59.40 seconds behind. Antigua’s Rene Gayral ended in third with a time of 28:38:95.
Guyana’s Ajay Gopilall was cheered on by the crowd at every turn but managed to secure fourth.
The riders will turn out today for the Road Race championship on the same route as today riding off from 09:00 hours.
