BELIZE CITY, Wed. Jan. 16, 2019– Some 48 cyclists, divided between 27 Elites and 22 Weekend Warriors, lined up on Sunday for Chief’s OPEN RACE from Leslie’s to Democracia and back to Old Belize, for a total of 52 miles.

As the cycling season comes into full swing, and as the Elites start getting into better condition, they are clearly stamping their authority on the Weekend Warriors. Today’s race was a clear example of that, as some 18 Elites separated themselves from the rest of us before we even got to the turnaround at Democracia. The only Weekend Warrior who made the split was Vallan Symns of Kulture, one of the younger Weekend Warriors (WW). As a consequence, he won the 5 WW station prizes of $20 each on the return, taking home $100 for his day’s work, plus the 1st Place in the Weekend Warriors category, as he was the only WW that came in with the Elites.

The Elites also had 6 station prizes, including a special station prize of $50 at Mile 8, just 3 miles before the finish, won by Nissan Arana of Westrac. However, that may have been his undoing, because the glory for the 1st Place overall today belonged to Brandon Cattouse of Smart, showing that his title of Fastest Cat still stands. Rounding out the top 5 were newcomer Thereque Leslie of Digicell, Keion Robateau of Westrac, Wasani Castro of Clear the Land Team, and Shane Jones, also of Westrac. Their time was recorded in 2 hours 7 minutes and 3 seconds for the 52-mile journey.

More than 5 minutes later, what remained of the field came in for the remaining 4 positions in the Weekend Warrior category. Barney Brown of Digicell took 2nd in this category barely edging out Roque Matus of M&M Engineering, who settled for 3rd; while David Yearwood of Furnished Apartments Limited was 4th, and the Old Man, Santino the Chief took the last spot on the Podium in this category.