PETITION?
No, that didn’t come. Neither did any serious competition for the Trinidad-based riders.
The men of Mecalfab have done it again, with seasoned veteran Philip Clarke leading a trio of clubmates to the finish as Team Heat Wave cyclists dominated yesterday’s National Road Race Championships on the Top Rock, Christ Church course.
It was the second time in as many years they swept the top three positions in the championships’ senior division after Clarke, 2013 winner Jamol Eastmond and Jason Perryman also divided the medals between them last year.
All that changed was the order, with Eastmond settling for third place this time, while Clarke beat him and Perryman in a rather friendly sprint to win the 160-kilometre event in four hours, 21:09 minutes.
“It feels great because this is some of my best form since 2006,” said the 39-year-old, two-time national champ, who officially rides for local club WOW Fugen when competing in Barbados.
“[But] it was an easy race for us because the other guys were just sitting down and weren’t attacking so that will work in our favour because we have the numbers.”
Yet the numbers were always going to be in their favour once the senior members of Team G4S Swift followed through with their anticipated boycott in light of a petition that was supposed to be seeking the removal of Barbados Cycling Union president Keith Yearwood.
But that petition was also a no-show, just like those Team Swift riders, leaving the complete domination by the Trinidad-based riders as the only real storyline coming out of a much-awaited championship race.
Such was their dominance that a Heat Wave cyclist always led the race, as club mate Jesse Kelly opened a two-minute cushion on the peloton from the opening lap, before his brother and junior rider Joshua caught him at the front on the second loop.
And when Jesse faded due to cramps, Clarke simply picked up the slack, joining Joshua out front before helping the younger Kelly to capture the junior title ahead of Fugen’s Gregory Vanderpool.
“The first half of the race was just tactics because a teammate came off the front so we didn’t have to pull it back as whichever one of us wins, it is still the team that teams,” explained Clarke.
“The race was then going to slow so we decided to pick it up gradually at the front, and the guys’ body language suggested to me that they were starting to suffer so I said I would go on the climb as hard as I could and make them chase and then wait for the other guys.”
Fugen’s Russell Elcock did threaten to make a race of it though, with the reigning multi time trial champ hanging on to Eastmond and Perryman in the chasing group.
However, Eastmond made his move and left the two to reconnect with Clarke with seven loops left, before Perryman also dropped Elcock just a lap later to leave all three teammates unchallenged.
Elcock finished fourth while Greg Downie crossed the line in fifth.
Earlier, Tremaine Forde-Catwell outsprinted Jacob Kelly and Team Swift colleague Chayne Goodman to win the juvenile category. Teammate Luke Staffner downed independent Dillon Gray en route to the top honours in the tiny mite division.
Fugen’s Ronald Harding and unattached rider Gregory Austin won the over-50s and the masters respectively, after Stanford Clarke came out victorious in the novice category as an independent cyclist.
