Cycling-Mathieu starts new season with a bang |20 February 2006

Competing for the Mohan Shopping Centre team, formerly PLS Riders, Mathieu was the only rider to dip below 24 minutes in the race which started at Pointe Larue (in front of SMB’s Agro-Industry factory), heading to the Palais des Sports roundabout via the Providence highway and back to the starting line.

Two junior riders completed the medals podium of the open category. Vélo Club de Mahé’s Leeroy Labiche was second in 24: 15.94, while Andriy Esparon, who has joined the Mohan Shopping Centre team after a good spell with St Francis last year, was third in 25:33.09.

Labiche and Esparon thus occupied the top-two positions in the junior classification with Mohan Shopping Centre’s Andrew Esparon (seventh overall out of 26 participants) finishing third in 25:49.77.

The cadet class was won by Leslie Siméon (16th overall) in 27:39.85. Second and third places were filled in by Ricky Servina (27:44.00) and Nelson Labrosse (29:13.00).

The organisers were happy with Saturday’s race and the turnout, saying they hope to see quality and tough competition among the many riders who have registered for the new season.

St Francis’ trio of Andy Rose (27: 28.08), Jim Melanie (27:03.77) and Andrew Boniface (27:42.64), all familiar names in cycling and who took a break from the sport last year, know that they have a lot of work to do to catch up with their much younger opponents. They have said that they are ready to make the sacrifices to get back to the top.

Like Rose, Melanie and Boniface, Richard Felix of Vélo Club de Mahé also made his comeback and clocked an encouraging time of 26:14.09.

Vélo Club de Mahé finished as the best team with a combined time of 1 hour 15 minutes and 38 seconds. Mohan Shopping Centre were second with 1h16:23 and St Francis third with 1h17:59.

It must be noted that the time for the best team award is calculated using the results of the top three finishers on each team.

G. G.