YESTERDAY, as is customary before the pedalling off of any three- or five-stage cycle road race in Guyana, Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony challenged the competitors for this year’s sixth annual five-stage ‘Ride for Life’ cycle road race, to break the overall record.
A record number of 76 cyclists (two more expected last night) were given the charge by Dr Anthony, in the presence of Director of Sport Neil Kumar, Guyana Cycling Federation president Cheryl Thompson and Deputy Permanent Secretary Steve Ninvalle.
“It gives me great pleasure to be here at this moment to send you off for this event which is a very gruelling race. We have seen over the years, that as the race became more and more popularised, we have seen more cyclists coming out to compete and we are very pleased about that.
“The number of entrants for this year is the largest ever for this race so far and I want to really commend the GCF, Hassan Mohamed and his team for putting all the efforts to ensure this race grows from year to year,” said Dr Anthony.
He highlighted the amount of foreign competitors (18 in total), who will be competing with their Guyanese counterparts for supremacy in this event, which have lucrative cash prizes up for grabs He called on all the competitors to break the overall record.
“It is good to have so many international competitions in this race, as they not only help to lift the quality of the race and I expect that you will be very competitive this time around, as is customary, while we expect the time will be lowered this year,” said Dr Anthony.
Like Kumar, Thompson and Mohamed who all made brief remarks before him, Dr Anthony called on the cyclists to be disciplined throughout the event, while he reminded his audience, that it is the Ministry of Health, who has been funding this event, using it as an HIV/AIDS Awareness event, using the cyclists as role models.
Interested cyclists had until Monday afternoon to register with national cycling coach and organiser of the event, Mohamed, who said 76 riders have confirmed their participation for this year’s event, surpassing the record number of 60 entrants in last year’s race.
Apart from the local participants, riders from Aruba, StLucia, Suriname, England and the United States of America (USA) will also be here for the four-day event, with veteran Guyanese cyclist Cyril Hunte who resides in the USA, also competing.
The event, which has Team Coco’s Michael Larsen as the defending champion of the Open category, having won the event in a time of 10 hours 29 minutes 39 seconds (10: 29: 39), has over the years attracted a large number of overseas riders, and this year will be no different.
It has become a marquee one on the local cycling calendar and sees cyclists from Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Martinique and the USA, lock horns with this country’s top junior and senior competitors, covering a distance of 266 miles (430km) and carrying an attractive first prize of US$1 000.
The first stage will pedal off from the Corriverton Police Station at 07:30hrs this morning and proceed to Main and Alexander Streets in New Amsterdam, covering a distance of 46.6 miles (75km), while the second stage pedals off from 14:00hrs from the Rosignol Stelling to Carifesta Avenue this afternoon, for a distance of 60.4 miles (96km).
Tomorrow morning from 09:00hrs, those cyclists who are still in the event, will do battle in the third stage which takes them from Wales Police Station to Bushy Park, East Bank Essequibo, a distance of 35 miles (56km).
The fourth stage will be competed in the Cinderella County of Essequibo, where the cyclists will pedal off from Supenaam Stelling at 0730hrs Saturday morning and journey to Charity before returning to Suddie for the finish, completing a distance of 67 miles (107.5km).
The event will climax on Sunday morning when the remaining riders will make their way from Kara Kara on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway to Homestretch Avenue in Georgetown, covering a distance of 64.6 miles (103.3km) in the process, following which the presentation of prizes will be done.