By Michelangelo Jacobus
At the inaugural edition of the Alanzo Greaves Cycling Classic on Saturday at the inner circuit of the National Park, fans were treated to a spectacle rarely seen in the Guyanese cycling . The outright dominance of a race by arguably Guyana’s current best cyclist, Jamual John.
Along his way to taking first place, John reset the record for the fastest lap around the National Park’s Inner Circuit and the overall time taken to finish the 30-lap race.
The fastest lap came in the final lap of the race, one minute & 55 seconds while John crossed the finish line with the clock at one hour, six minutes, 17.82 seconds.
At the start of the race, Jamual along with Briton John who shares the same surname and a few others easily distanced themselves from the pack, with each lap offering up $1000 for the leader, the Johns and Romello Crawford shared the lead for the first half of the race before Jamual took the attack to the peloton and broke away… never to be caught. He ended up with 16 Preems (sprint prizes) and lapped his nearest challenger, Briton, twice in the process. In addition to the Preems, Jamual walked away with $5000 for the fastest lap of the race and an added cash prize from organizer Alanzo Greaves for lapping the peloton twice.
Finishing in second place was Briton, while Crawford came home third with Robin Persaud fourth, Christopher Griffith fifth and Alex Mendes sixth in that order.
The Greaves Cycling Classic, the brain-child of former National Cyclist Alanzo Greaves is set to be a weekly feature. Greaves revealed that while he is now permanently out of action due to leg injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, he is all about giving back to the sport.
The next edition of the Greaves Cycling Classic is set for February 18 at the same venue.
The 592 Dugout 