Yesterday, the national rider beat the heat and a star-studded field of wheelsmen at the National Park speeding off with the top honours in the feature 35-lap event of the second annual Payless Variety Store 11-race programme.
His tactically sound victory, which came in one hour, 18 minutes and seven seconds, was Greaves’ 21st of the season on the local and international circuit.
The 24-year-old, who is currently carrying home trophies faster than he can house them, also pocketed three of the eight sprint prizes in leading national rider, Robin Persaud, national road race champion, Raynauth Jeffrey, Enzo Matthews, Hamza Eastman and his club mate, Alex Mendes into the top six.
Jeffrey (two), Persaud (one) and top veterans, Paul Choo-Wee-Nam (one) and Horace Burrowes (one) also earned sprint prizes.
The signature event started off at a brisk pace with several riders teaming up to stage mini break aways even though they were unsuccessful until Choo-Wee-Nam and Mendes seemingly took control of the race with four laps to go.
Choo-Wee-Nam and Mendes rode in tandem and enjoyed a 100m lead with one lap to go for the finish and were poised to take the top honours from riders in the chase peloton which included Greaves, Persaud, Jeffrey, Eastman, Matthews and Paul DeNobrega.
However at the bell, Jeffrey led the peloton’s surge and reconnected and passed the two fading leaders with about half a lap to go.
With 400m from the finish, Jeffrey was the race leader with Persaud and Greaves right on his back wheel.
With 150m from the line however, Persaud changed gears and blew by Jeffrey but so did Greaves who rose from his saddle and wheeled in Persaud who had to settle for the first runner up position by a bike length after Greaves’ final burst.
Before the feature event, Rawle Small won the BMX boys’ 12 to 14 years, three-lap race ahead of Jaleel Jackson and Kemuel Moses respectively. Sherwin Sampson took top honours in the BMX boys’ 9 to 12 years, two-lap race pedaling in before Amo Gomes and Thuran Garbarran.
Sherwin Sampson also won the BMX boys’ 6 to 9 years two-lap event, finishing before Jeremiah Harrison and Alex Leung.
Top veteran, Shameer Basksh rode off with the veteran’s under-50, five-lap, first place trophy and the sprint prize, upsetting arch rival Junior Niles and Shurland Sue-Hang who were second and third respectively.
Jamal John took top honours in the three-lap, BMX boys’ open race relegating Shamar Dass and Adrian Sharma to the runners-up positions.
In the 12 to 14 years, boys’ and girls’ three-lap race, John also took home the winner’s trophy and sprint prize, besting Raphael Leung and Alfie Sonoram in the process.
In the five-lap veteran’s over-50 race, Linden Blackman was the first finisher followed by Virgil Jones and Courtney Hackett.
Maurice Fagundes took home the veterans’ over-60 years’ winner’s trophy since he was the only finisher.
Seventeen-year-old Eastman won the juniors’ and juveniles’ 10-lap event in 25 minutes and 50 seconds and also grabbed a sprint prize. Mario King pedaled in second while Andre Green was third. Andre Abdool nabbed the other sprint token.
The race and the sprint prize for the Mountain Bikers event were won by Richard Charles. His arch rival Ozia McAlley placed second while Clyde Jacobs biked in third.
At the prize-giving ceremony, National Cycling Coach and organizer of the programme, Hassan Mohamed thanked representatives of the store for the sponsorship of the event. Mohamed also acknowledged the cyclists for participating in the meet and making the programme a success.
The cyclists will now take their talents to the open roads this morning to compete for the top prize of $240,000 in the second annual Digicel Breast Cancer Awareness road race.
Note: Greaves won three races in the USA in June. There were 22 starters for yesterday’s 35-lap event.
