Jamaul John is confident of defending his Digicel Cancer Awareness Cycle Meet title today when the cycles are sent on their way on the outer circuit of the National Park in the annual event organized by the Evolution Cycle club and sponsored by Digicel in observance of Cancer Awareness Month. Guyana Times Sport spoke to John on Saturday in an exclusive interview and the defending champion acknowledged that he will be facing competition from a field of top quality riders but pointed out he gained more confidence after prevailing in last weekend’s 80-mile road race.
Flashback! Jamaul John won last year’s feature race ahead of Raul Leal
In terms of fitness, John pointed out; “I’m not up to scratch at the moment, my fitness could be better, I’m about 80% fit but I’ll be going out there to give it my all.”
Among John’s closest challengers the likes of Geron Williams, Raynauth “Obeah Man” Jeffrey and Raul Leal will be ones to look out for but John is prepared for the competition as he has a plan that he aims to execute for the successful defense of his title.
The tenacious youngster will be aiming to make his break away in the early stages of the race as he noted that this will make it easier to be with the peloton thus the final sprint won’t be out of his reach.
Last year John held off Team Evolution’s Raul Leal in the final sprint to the finish line winning the feature 35-lap race in a time of two hours 54 minutes and 11.72s.
This will be the sixth edition of the meet while the Evolution Cycling Club will be organizing the event for the third consecutive year.
The route will be the outer ring of the National Park and will see cyclists heading north on JB Singh road then west on to Carifesta Avenue before turning south on to Camp Street and east on to Thomas Lands to complete a lap. The start/finish line is on JB Singh road halfway between Thomas Lands and Carifesta Avenue.
Registration begins at 07:00h while the first race at 07:30h will be contested among staff members of the telecommunications giant, Digicel covering a distance of one lap.
Immediately following will be a 5-lap race for mountain bikes and novice categories. The feature event will comprise of the following four categories: Seniors, Juniors, Veterans Under-45 and Veterans Over-45.
The Veterans’ race will finish after 20 laps and those who are confident that they can compete in the senior category will be allowed to continue after crossing the line. Those veterans desirous of continuing are asked to notify the race marshal before the start. The Senior and Junior categories will race over a distance of 35 laps.
The entrance fee for the feature race is $2,000 except for the mountain bikers and novices who will pay $1,000. All proceeds from the entrance fees and donations will go towards the Cancer Institute of Guyana.
(Michelangelo Jacobus)
