Jeffrey wins second GCF national c/ships
Raynauth Jeffrey braved yesterday morning’s sweltering heat to pedal his way to another Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) national championship title.
Jeffrey ended the gruelling 103-mile race in a time of 3:59:37 while Paul DeNobrega and Hamza Eastman jostled at the finish line before finishing second and third respectively.
The race started outside of the National Sports Commission’s (NSC) head office on Homestretch Avenue and saw the nation’s top cyclists battling each other up the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, en-route to Camp Soweyo and back to the starting line for the 2017 title.
The race, from all reports, was controlled by the 23-year-old Jeffrey, Andrew Hicks, Eastman and DeNobrega who broke away from the field on their way up to Soweyo, a lead which was largely maintained throughout the duration of the race.
Jeffrey, however, as he recounted, took the opportunity to speed away from the pack with 20-miles to go to comfortably cross the finish line clear of the other finishers.
“Coming back, I was hurt but with 20-miles to go, I went on the break by myself and just downed my head and kept going and I never looked back,” the young man said, whilst wheezing for breath, after the race.
His strategy, he added, was simply to try and avoid anyone from breaking away since it is always easier to race from the front as opposed to coming from behind.
Jeffrey, who races for Pharmaco in the United States of America (USA) attributed his success to his racing stint in the USA where he had the opportunity to compete professionally which aided his ability to race better in the field.
The victory was somewhat a stroll down memory lane for Jeffrey who won the event in 2013 and who was last year’s runner up.