The weather was perfect for a new record in Sunday’s 15th Annual Alpheus Williams HIV Day Cycling Classic, with a light and cool north-westerly wind blowing the riders from Belmopan to Belize City. Both the Elite and Masters 4&5 records fell, but the Women’s record, set in 2009 by Shalini Zabaneh, still stands. Shalini elected to skip the Women’s race on Sunday, and joined the Elite race instead as the sole female participant, finishing a respectable 42nd, from a field of 56 that started, in a time of 1:49:05.
56 cyclists started and 53 completed the 48.6 mile Elite/U23/Masters Cat 2&3 race from Belmopan to Belize City, finishing at Leslie’s Imports. Winning the two-man sprint to the tape was David Henderson, Jr. (Indeco), edging out Kyne Gentle (D&D Consultancy) with a new record time of 1:42:53 for a 28.34 mile-per-hour clip. (The old record of 1:43:58 was set last year by Greg Lovell.) Taking 3rd place was Byron Pope (Benny’s Megabytes, 1:43:16), 4th Marlon “Diesel” Castillo (Santino’s, 1:43:16), then an 11-man peloton, including 5th place Gregory Lovell (Santino’s), 6th Luigi Urbina (C-Ray), 7th Allen Castillo (Benny’s Megabytes), 8th Darnell Barrow (Santino’s), 9th Tariq Cano (Indeco), and 10th Jose Choto (Western Spirit), all clocking 1:43:32.
Special prizes in the above race were also given to: Youths – 1st Oscar Qurioz (Cayo Uprising), 2nd Zahir Figueroa (Cayo Uprising), 3rd Delawn Abraham (Unattached); Juniors – 1st Deezan Spence (Twin Towns), 2nd Riis Cattouse (C-Ray), 3rd Wasani Castro (Clear the Land); and Masters Cat 2&3 – 1st Luigi Urbina (C-Ray), 2nd Jose Choto (Western Spirit), 3rd Quinton Hamilton (Santino’s).
The Women & Masters Cat 4&5 race travelled from La Democracia to the same finishing point at Leslie’s Imports on the outskirts of Belize City, a distance of 28.0 miles. 19 males and 4 females started the race, with all except 1 male rider finishing the journey.
Teammates Kirah Eiley and Kaya Cattouse (both of C-Ray) arrived together, with Kirah taking 1st place and Kaya 2nd in a time of 1:12:15 for a 23.25 m.p.h. average. (The Women record held by Shalini Zabaneh is 1:11:59 set in 2009.) 3rd was Patricia Chavarria (AAA Loans) in 1:15:16, and 4th Maricela Garcia (Sagitun) in 1:18:05.
Crossing the finish line unchallenged for 1st place in the Masters Cat 4&5 category was Kenroy “Smokes” Gladden (Horizon) who set a new record of 1:05:04 for an average of 25.81 m.p.h. (The record set last year by Barney Brown was 1:09:03). Three seconds later, a 4-man peloton followed Smokes, with 2nd place being taken by Santino “Chief” Castillo (Santino’s), 3rd Steven Bisset (CDS Gas), 4th Ronald “Jack” Sutherland (Santino’s), and 5th Maurice Kelly (Horizon), all recording a time of 1:05:07.
The next main event in cycling is of course, the KREM New Year’s Day Cycling Classic 2012.