Robin Persaud rode a very tactical race to come out victorious in the third stage of the Ministry of Health/ Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports inaugural five stage cycle road race yesterday morning but John Charles has the overall lead with two stages to go.
Yesterday’s third stage began outside of the Wales Police station and proceeded to Parika for the finish, a distance of 32 miles.
Persaud in the company of Charles, Leer Nunes, Scott Savoury, Geron Williams and national junior cycle champion Chris Holder jnr. broke away from the pack of 20 starters just before the Bagottsville bridge approximately five minutes into the race.
They rotated the lead until they reached the village of Cornelia Ida where Williams found it hard to keep up with the leaders and was subsequently dropped.
The leaders increased the distance over the peloton which included Alonzo Greaves, Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams, Junior Niles, Warren Mc Kay and Enzo Matthews.
Approaching the finish, Persaud made a late surge on his rivals and outsprinted Charles and Holder to the line to take the stage in 1:06:14 with Charles, Holder, Nunes and Savoury finishing in that order.
The peloton came in two minutes after the race was completed, led by Mc Kay who palced sixth, making a dash for the finish from 200 metres to spring a surprise on his rivals.
Williams did well to finish seventh ahead of Matthews, Greave and the veterans Linden Blackman and Ian Jackson.
In the veterans category, the five cyclists took off from the Vreed-en-Hoop junction and proceeded to the finish where Compton Persaud maintained his dominance in this division, coming out on top for the third successive stage in a time of 1:01:00.
Once again, Aubrey Greavesande, Monty Parris, Walter Isaacs and Joseph Farriah all finished behind Persaud.
Meanwhile, by virtue of his second place finish way ahead of and erasing the four seconds lead Greaves had on him, Charles has now become overall leader of the race, completing the three stages or 139 miles so far in a time of 5:34:10.
He is holding a 2:04 lead over Greaves and one eye on the whopping $200,000.00 first prize with two more stages to go.
Williams is in third position, four seconds behind Greaves whilst Persaud is lying in fourth 3:33 behind Charles.
Leer Nunes, Mc Kay, Holder, Niles, Geron Williams, Jackson and Matthews all complete the top 10 in that order with the final three giving up 11:55 to the leader.
In the Junior category Holder who has a time of 5:43:21 holds a 2:44 lead over Geron Williams and Enzo Matthews whilst Jackson has a 1:58 lead over Blackman and a further 14:25 lead over overseas-based Guyanese Terrence Budhram in the under-45 veterans’ category.
Compton Persaud leads the over-45 category.
The fourth stage of this event which is being used to sensitise the Guyanese nation of the deadly killer disease HIV/AIDS will be run off this morning from07:00h from Supenaam to Charity and back to Suddie for the finish, a course none of the cyclists is familiar with.
