WAL­TER AL­IBEY

Se­nior Re­porter

wal­ter.al­ibey@guardian.co.tt

T&T’s Elite cy­clist Alexi Cos­ta-Ramirez fol­lowed up on her win­ning per­for­mance in the T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion’s Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships Time Tri­al on Sat­ur­day, by tak­ing the Elite Women’s Road Race event at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va on Sun­day.

The event was a gru­elling 103-kilo­me­tre grind that took rid­ers from the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, all the way up to the Mt Hope round­about and down to Debe, be­fore the rid­ers dashed back to the Sta­di­um for the fin­ish.

Cos­ta-Ramirez, a win­ner of the Time Tri­al the day be­fore in a time of 35 min­utes, 13.71 sec­onds in the 15-lap race, had now suc­cess­ful­ly dou­bled up by cross­ing the fin­ish line first for the gold medal and na­tion­al cham­pi­onship ti­tle, rep­re­sent­ing the Amer­i­can tour team Mi­a­mi Blaz­ers.

Cos­ta-Ramirez, who signed for the US team for the 2023 sea­son, got across the fin­ish line be­fore sec­ond-place Cheyenne Awai who rode for Heat­wave.

Mau­rice Bur­nette took the elite men’s ti­tle, rid­ing un­at­tached. Bur­nette stepped up to claim a ti­tle that was ex­pect­ed to go to Ak­il Camp­bell, the win­ner of the time tri­al the day be­fore. How­ev­er, Camp­bell, who won the coun­try’s first-ever en­durance gold medal at an in­ter­na­tion­al event, had been rel­e­gat­ed to the fourth-place fin­ish.

Bur­nette was fol­lowed close­ly be­hind by Ben­jamin Mout­tet (Break­away) and third En­rique De Co­mar­mond of the Heat­wave Club.

Mean­while, Ash­leigh Thomas, the rid­er from The Braves had al­so dou­bled up in the ju­nior women’s di­vi­sion by tak­ing the road race crown.