DeNobrega places 44th, Niles 69th in Elite Race at Pan-Am

The Guyanese duo Paul DeNobrega and Junior Niles ended participation at the 32^nd Pan-American Road Cycling Championships Elite Race in 44^th and 69^th positions respectively in the Elite Race, which took place at the Mirador Sur Park, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Sunday last.

The gruelling 170km contest on the 10km circuit presented perhaps the highest level of competition for the pair and they did their best coming against the best riders from the continent.

The winner of the contest was Columbia’s Andres Martinez in 3:18.47s, followed by Mexico’s Alfredo Infante, Sebastian Benavides (Columbia), Francisco Chamorro (Argentina) and Ignacio Maldonado of Uruguay. Barbadian Phillip Clarke ended 13^th with Cuban Felix Fernandez 14^th.

On Saturday, the Under-23 riders took centre stage in the 140km race, which saw Hamzah Eastman ending 20^th and Jamal John 36^th. Andrew Hicks, who after looking good and was challenging for a podium position, suffered cramping and had to settle for the 69^th place from 71 starters.

Some 240 riders from 27 nations, including Cuba, France, Venezuela, Chile, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Haiti, USA, Brazil and Honduras, competed at the championship. There was also a female segment of the race, while Time Trials were also held.

The participation of the Guyana team in Santo Domingo would have been due in part to the contributions of Hadi’s World, Marics and Farfan and Mendes. President of the International Cycling Union (UCI), Brian Cookson attended the championship.