The Bank of Bermuda Foundation Time Trial Championships will be held this Sunday, June 20th. Defending champions, Garth Thomson and Deanna McMullen will be looking to repeat as they prepare to leave Bermuda. After crashing out in the later stages of the Sinclair Packwood Memorial Race on May 24th, Thomson will be hoping for fairer weather and better luck.
Thomson has been virtually unbeatable this season in the “race of truth”, so called because each rider is very much on his own, racing against the clock. He has often finished minutes ahead of his rivals in an event where the margin of victory is more often measured in tenths of a second. His closest rival is likely to be Neil de Ste Croix.
The senior men’s race will be over a 20.2 mile course at Southside, with the first rider starting at 7:30am and others leaving at one minute intervals thereafter.
The women’s race is also likely to be a one-horse affair with McMullen the prohibitive favourite. She has been training hard with her husband, Thompson, looking for one more trophy to pack for the trip back home to Canada. McMullen’s closest rival over the 17 mile course could be triathlete Karen Bordage, relative newcomers Nicole Mitchell or Melissa Thompson.
This year the Bermuda Bicycling Association (“BBA”) will also be crowning a Junior Champion from the ranks of cyclists 18 and under. Competition here will be intense with the champion boy likely coming from any one of three older members of the Bermuda Junior National Training Squad, including Alex Godfrey, Dominique Mayho and Tre’Shun Correia. All three have been more than holding their own in racing with the seniors this season, but this time will be competing over a shorter 13.6 mile course. Triathlete Ryan Gunn and juniors Marquise Cann and Mark Godfrey could also do well.
Among the girls, Hayley Evans, Sophie Adams and Kamryn Minors will be hoping to impress the selectors ahead of the 2010 Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships in Aruba, while youngsters Molly Pilgrim, Annabella Doyle and Gabriella Arnold will be looking to place.
Shorter races will also be staged for juniors 14 and younger.
While we are likely to see repeat champions in 2010, there will also be new National Champions to be recognized. Starting this year, the BBA has brought its nationality rules into line with those promulgated by the sport’s world governing body, the UCI. This year, only Bermudian riders can be names National Champion, and that honour will be bestowed on the first Bermudian finisher in the senior and junior fields. With Canadians Thompson and McMullen out of the running, the door is opened for the likes of Mark Hatherley, Chris Faria, Shannon Lawrence or Darren Glasford to claim the title.
Entries for this race close at 5PM on Thursday June 17th. Entry forms are available on the BBA’s website at www.bermudabicycle.org.
Title sponsor of this race is the Bank of Bermuda Foundation.
For more information, please contact:
Peter Dunne President, BBA president@bermudabicycle.org
Nigel Godfrey Race Director ngodfrey@ibl.bm
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