This past Saturday, 43 of the 46 cyclists who started had already completed the Elite/Open race to Hattieville and back, which was won by Brandon Cattouse (C-Ray), who crossed the line in front of a bunch of 32 cyclists in a time of 1:03:42. The sole female finisher, Shalini Zabaneh, held her own in that bunch. Byron Pope (Benny’s Megabytes) was 2nd and Erwin Middleton (Indeco) was 3rd. Top finisher among the Masters was Mateo Cruz (C-Ray), followed by Leroy Casasola (Santino’s) and Glenn O’Brien (Zamir), all in the same 1:03:42.
After standing around for a while, at least seven minutes, the excitement level suddenly peaked among the few fans and mostly adult riders still recovering from their ride, as the official vehicle came into view, and the leaders of the Junior cycle race could be seen coming in the distance. It was an exciting 5-man sprint down the last hundred yards to the finish. As the front runners were about to cross the line, somebody shouted, and all eyes turned backwards, in utter astonishment and horror, to see a slow moving vehicle come to a stop just a few feet behind the finish line. A split second later and, BAM!!, as man and bike crashed head on into the pickup, and the young cyclist was flung spinning into the air. Thank God, and his riding helmet, 16-year-old Ethan Neal survived the terrible ordeal and is reportedly on the road to recovery.
Understandably, emotions ran high among fellow cyclists, and blame may have been hastily misplaced. At a quarter before 8 on a Saturday morning, the Western Highway is a busy piece of road. But when a race is coming in, nothing can be left to chance, and drivers must be duly notified from a safe distance away.
In a press release yesterday, the Cycling Association has vowed to take all necessary measures to ensure such a blunder never occurs again.
21 of the 23 starters reportedly finished the Junior race. The top 6 who came in together were, 1st place Gian Zetina (Cayo Uprising), 2nd Giovanni Lovell (Indeco), 3rd Ethan Neal (Twin Towns), 4th Wasani Castro (Clear the Land), 5th Eldon Simmons (M&M Engineering), and 6th Oscar Qurious (Cayo Uprising), all clocking 1:12:25.