The margin couldn’t have been any smaller. Joshua Kelly is on track for that historic double, but only barely, having just held off kid brother Jacob by a mere half second to finally capture the Barbados Cycling Union’s national time trial title yesterday.
Riding from the bottom of Spring Garden to the top and back ten times, both Kelly boys completed the 40k course in the same 58 minutes and eight seconds before split seconds were used to separate the two Massy United Insurance teammates.
The win put the elder Kelly on course to complete a rare national double, as the 22-year-old Colombia-based cyclist enters as the heavy favourite to ride away with today’s national road race.
More importantly, the result only further confirmed Joshua’s status as Barbados’ pre-eminent road racer after the former Caribbean time trial gold medallist missed out on both national titles last year due to illness.
“It feels good to finally take a TT title but it was really windy and really challenging mentally for sure feeling the bike go all over the road, so I had to stay focused with the crosswind all day,” said Joshua moments after the victory.
Pan Am bronze medallist Edwin Sutherland finished third in an hour and 42 seconds after Jacob passed him midway through the seventh lap despite startinga minute behind the Jumbo Golden Wheelers cyclist.
The day wasn’t so good for five-time champion Russell Elcock, who fell short in his bid to reclaim the time trial crown he relinquished last year.
Billed as a battle between Elcock and Joshua Kelly, the much-awaited showdown never materialised after Elcock was forced out of the event in the seventh lap due to a lack of fitness.
“For the first 20k I was all right, but when the time trial started to get a little longer I didn’t feel so well,” said Elcock.
“These days I’m not getting to train as I would like because I’m working two jobs. I’m not as fit as I once was, so the longer the time trial went on it took its toll on me.”
It was tough going for the older Kelly too considering Joshua had no one to gauge his ride against as he started as the first of four cyclists, who all had one-minute intervals between them.
But he never let his pace drop considerably while consistently clocking the speeds and times throughout each lap.
Team Massy’s success wasn’t just limited to the elite category though, as Kyle Gale (30:35) and Adam Marshall (34:29) won the juniors and tiny mites respectively as the only riders in those shorter 20 kilometre divisions.
Unattached cyclist Wayne Edwards turned in an impressive performance to take the over-50 category in 32:31 ahead of fellow independent rider Sedwin Jones (34:40) and Reginald Jones (34:44) of Jumbo Golden Wheelers.
ICBL Fugen’s Rene Lashley won the masters’ division after clocking 36:52 and finished before Miguel Skinner (38:19) and clubmate Francesco Anneville (39:15).
Elcock’s FTR Cycling teammate Wingrove Thomas (35:51) took the top honours in the novice category ahead of mountain biker Randy Licorish (36:49) and clubmate Malavi Velloza (38:49). (JM)
