The cycling gods held back the rains providing nice cool weather for a time trial as riders headed east for the first official event of the Cayman Islands Cycling Association’s new super series, a five mile individual race against the clock.
A good mix of age and gender totalling 14 riders took up the challenge to face the test head on from Cherry Tree Drive in Bodden Town, finishing at Lovers Wall on 3 March.
Michele Smith, fresh from competing at the Tour of Dominican Republic, blitzed the course, at an average speed of 25.7 miles per hour, to take the overall honours in 10 minutes, 41 seconds. Perennial youngster Chris Sutton, who won the masters division, finished 59 seconds behind Smith, with Johan Heath finishing third, a further 10 seconds back.
Such was Smith’s dominance that he caught Sutton, who started a minute before him, just on the finish line.
The ladies rivalled the men in numbers with one newcomer to the racing scene, Ceretta Harvey, placing fourth in the women’s division, with all posting good times.
In what was a hotly contested division, Risa Goldberg took a four-second victory over Justine Plenkiewick by stopping the clock in 13:46.
Kara Donnelly, who went through the 2.3 mile time check only 25 seconds off the lead, fell off her early pace to finish third in 15:06. Fiona Branders, who is still recovering from an injury, closed out the division.
In the junior division, Josh Weaver, 11, embraced the challenge on his own with the tenacity of long retired French cyclist Bernard “Badger” Hinault. Weaver promises to be a talent in the future under the current nurturing of dad Chris.
He returned to tackle the course on his own, after having a go with his dad in the 2-up time trials a few weeks earlier, posting a finishing time of 18:13 which was good enough for second in the juniors.
Honours, however, went to Derron Kelly who completed the course in 13:20, which was also good enough for sixth place overall on the day.
This year, the cycling association has introduced a new race format to spice up the quality of racing whereby all events on the calender will form part of a new Super Series. Points are accumulated from all events, with the exception of team events, throughout the year and the person with the most points will be crowned winner of the Super Series.
Full results with intermediate time checks after 2.3 miles (Frank Sound intersection marshal) in brackets.
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