The Virgin Islands Cycling Federation on St. Croix hosted the Two-Person Time Trial on Sunday, April 24. It was a small but exciting race. With only seven teams lined up, it was not an easy call as to which team would be the winner of the prime nor the overall winner. This year, the time trial switched direction and went from Div to Ha’ penny and back. In 2021, Mikey Dizon-Bumann and Danielky Cedeno won first place going from Ha’ penny to Divi and back.
With Dizon-Bumann and Cedeno not in attendance, David Parris and Glenn (Hula) Massiah were sent off last because they were the second-place finishers last year. They improved on their placing and grabbed the gold on Sunday’s 18 miler in a time of 51:45. Stephen Swanton and Robin Seila gave a great effort against the strong southeast wind and finished in second place, with a time of 52:03. The team of Ian Collins and Joey Swanson was third in 53:48.
Jerry Remie had a new partner this year, birthday boy Norbert Prosere, and lead the Expert field. They were first in 55:21 and fourth overall. Troy Holloway and Catherine Seguin repeated their second-place finish in the Expert field with a time of 57:31. New to time trialing was the Expert team of Ted Prosper and Kevin Williams. They were third in 58:32.
James Meyers and Laverne Fredericksen, regular training buddies, teamed up in the Masters category and finished in 1:05:15.
The biggest excitement of the morning was the prize awarded to the fastest team to the top of Mount Fancy, just 3 miles from the start. The goal was to choose a prime (prize) location that was not too far from the start and which would not give a clear advantage to the fastest, longer-distance riders.
Well, the overall winners proved to have the most grit because they reached the line at the top of Mount Fancy in 7:45, which was 18 seconds ahead of the second-place team of Stephen and Robin.
For their win, they were each awarded a set of Vittoria Corsa Competition tires, courtesy of UCI. In addition, the first-place winners in each category were awarded cycling apparel, secured through the UCI Solidarity Programme, and the second- and third- place teams were awarded handlebar tape.
The next race on the schedule is the East End Road Race, on the freshly paved roads, on May 15.
