ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA CYCLING FEDERATION

Marvin Spencer emerges as the fastest man on bike at Sunday’s National Individual Time Trial Championships, hosting by the Antigua and Barbuda Cycling Association and APUA inet.

Minister of Finance, Hon. Harold Lovell, presenting trophies to the winners, Marvin Spencer - First, Robert Marsh - Second, Dale Richards - Third.

A Class National Time Trial Championships Results
B Class National Time Trial Championships Results
Beginners Class National Time Trial Championships Results
Females Class National Time Trial Championships Results
Antigua Cycling Association's Points series as of 3rd April 2011

The Individual Time Trials is a unique discipline of cycling which use to judge the individual effort of a rider. This calls for a person maximum output throughout the distance. This discipline is basically judging how fast a person can get from one point to the other resulting as the quickest time win. Marvin Spencer speared no effort as he came up against the island’s best time trial-list in the likes of Robert Marsh and Dale Richardson. The 6’3 rider who left the start gate 3rd to last, blaze the course on his brand new Cervelo P3 Time Trial machine, catching and passing riders that started as much as 4 minutes ahead of him hence, opened huge gap on the riders who is chasing. Marvin Spencer of the Rebel Cycling Club produced a time of 45:08 over the 19 mile course to capture one of the sport’s most prestigious titles, 2011 National Time Trial Champion. However, the reigning National TT Champion, Robert Marsh did not go down easy as he too had an outstanding ride but was 14 seconds off the winning time to capture his 4th consecutive 2nd place in a time of 45:23 ahead of the Grand Master, Dale Richardson who was 3rd in a time of 46:32. An improving Garfield Henry slotted himself into 4th place by clocking a time of 47:32 ahead of Neil Lloyd of the Rattlers Cycling Club who was 5th in a time of 47:47.

Tamiko Butler regained the title as National female Time Trial Champion by completing the 9.5 mile course in a time of 25:30. The champion went on to compete against the B-class clocking a time of 50:53 to place 2nd in the B-class category.

Meanwhile, Tesheed Gordon is the National Junior Cycling Champion as he easily won the junior category. The young Rattler Club rider completes the 9.5 mile course in a time of 27:19 ahead of Tristan Matthew also of the Rattlers Cycling Club. Matthew clocked a time of 28:24 ahead of 11 year old Joel Phillip who was 3rd in a time of 29:58. Nigel Fabian and Bubwa Letand were 4th and 5th respectively.

B-class category riders was recognized in Sunday’s even but wasn’t apart of time national title. The B-class riders contested the overall title with Devon Norris placing 8th overall. Devon Norris received an APUA Inet trophy for 1st in the b-class. Devon Norris completes the 19 mile course in a time of 50:50 ahead of Tamiko Butler who was 3 seconds of Norris’s time, as she produced a time 50:53. Alvin Merrick 2 race winning streak came to an end whilst placing 3rd in a time of 51:10.

The 2011 National Time Trial Championships is sponsored by APUA Inet of the 3rd consecutive year. Sponsorship also came for ABACA’s top partner, Lucozade. Medical Laboratory Services also came on board as a sponsor to offer their services to the 3 top finishers in each categories of evaluating the athlete’s performance. This will be done via blood and urine samples, more specifically will be done on the Basic Metabolic Panel (BMP) and Cardiac Enzymes. The testing will commence as soon as it is convenient for the athletes, additionally follow ups will be done on the athletes three months later to check the progress that he/she has made. If any of the reports need special attention they will refer the client to a doctor, which will also be of no charge to him/her. All this will be sponsored by Medical Lab and Mr. Don Charles. Special thanks also goes out the Red Cross, the individuals that help us Marshal the corners, Serpent Radio show and President of Barbados Cycling Federation, Keith Yearwood for assisting by lending us the additional sensors that work with our My Laps Electronic Timer System to cover the increase in our race participants.

Presentation to the Overall winner was done by Minister of Finance; Hon. Harold Lovell who was on hand, not in an official capacity. The City East representative attends the event as a close friend of the President; Cliff Williams hence gained interest in the sport. Presentation to the athletes was made by APUA Telecoms Manager, Mr. Curtis McKay, President of Antigua and Barbuda Cycling Association, Cliff Williams.

Meanwhile, the president of Cycling, Cliff Williams expresses his gratitude to all stakeholders who make the National Time Trial Championships a success. He expressed that this year’s event is the biggest of this kind; not only from the increase in number of participants but also the numbers in spectator crowd. The quality of races, equipment and speed also made significant improvement. “Although the course record that was set last year by Robert Marsh is un-touched we still see improvement in the overall speed of the race, lots of improvement have been shown by the lower ranked cycling. The only major setback we been having from the start of the season have to do with the cooperation of the Royal Police Force. So far, for the 5 events we hosted, the police have been more than 2 hours late for the ones they eventually show up for. The association have been following the same format for approval that been set by the force for years which was working well up to the end of 2010 season. The start of 2011 season the cooperation is the worst we ever received.