Costa leads cycle Tour of San Fernando

GUY COSTA is atop the leaderboard after the first stage of the revived Tour De San Fernando cycling classic yesterday. The Heatwave pedallist squeezed past David Alves of Warriors and Guyanese-born national Stephen Mangroo to win the Soong’s Time Trial — a 700-metre distance from the Soong’s Great Wall Restaurant to the San Fernando Hill. Costa clocked two minutes 28.46 seconds, followed by Alves (2:28.66) and Mangroo (2:28.75), with Collin Wilson of Warriors (2:30.18) and veteran Roger Smart of Sonics (2:37.34) completing the top five.

Dariel Perreira, representing the club Mercury Rising, was the first junior, and sixth overall, in a quick two minutes 41 seconds, ahead of Barbadian Jason Perryman 2:42.17 and Stephen Rambaran of Southampton 2:49.23. Among the veteran cyclists, Gregory D’Andrade was first in the 40-49 age group in 2:56.30, with Richard Ramchand of Warriors (3:02.37) and Ruth Hessels (3:43.08) trailing. Peter Hernandez topped the 50-and-over category in 3:04.69, followed by Joey Nunes (3:44.41) and Ronald Peters (3:55.61). Bajan Shane Weekes leads the tinymites category with a time of 3:32.61 with Caleb Hart of Nova Sports a distant second with 4:12.56 and Tysha Hamilton of CL Singh Sonics (4:46.77) third.

The second stage — the ESWIL Circuit Race — wheels off at 7 am today with ten laps from Lady Hailes Avenue to the Rienzi Kirton Highway, Independence Avenue, Chancery Lane, King’s Wharf back to the Lady Hailes. And the overall winner will be known this afternoon from 1 pm with the final stage — Bike Inn Circuit Race — comprising of ten laps from the Marabella Roundabout to the King’s Wharf and back to Marabella.