Abraham 5th in Rio cycling

NATIONAL road cycling champion Emile Abraham, finished runner-up  in the mountain stage of the Volta do Rio De Janeiro, but had to settle for fifth overall. Abraham could have don much better, however, had he not struck a barricade with just 250 metres to go in the fourth and final stage of last weekend’s ride. Riding with Team USA/Aerospace Engineering/Angostura, the Tobago-born cyclist was up against riders from Argentina, Italy, France, Portugal and hosts Brazil. Illness and a void vaccination paper whittled down Abraham’s team to just three cyclists, but he managed 35th after the Day One prologue, a 1.5 kilometres ride on the Copacabana Rio beach.

Abraham improved to 14th in the Day Two 132.8 kilometres grind from Rio to Cabo Frio. But on Day Three, also in Cabo Frio, despite making a wrong turn in the 30 kilometre individual time trial, Abraham was again 35th with a time of 40 minutes 51 seconds. He described Day Four as the most difficult of the tour with a 112 kilometre ride with multiple climbs. Abraham attacked teammate Hugh Moran who was wearing the leaders jersey from the start along with an Italian and two Brazilian cyclists, who  broke away from the main pack, and Abraham managed to win the first prime. And with just about 25 kilometres remaining in the ride, Abraham saw hope of taking over the leader’s jersey. With one kilometre left he was still in the hunt, but Abraham said 500 metres out the Italian rider launched a devastating sprint to which no one could respond, but he held on for second. The final 700 metres was on cobble stone on which he rode before on his tour of  Europe , but he took that last turn too sharp.