Anguillan sprints to opening stage win in Jamaica Cycling Classic

Anguillan Hasani Hennis, riding for team AVR Racing, secured the opening 90-kilometre elite section stage in the 2023 International Jamaican Cycling Classic road race which took place in Montego Bay, yesterday.

Hennis and his AVR team conjured up the perfect team race strategy in a double loop event from Whitter Village in Ironshore to Falmouth in Trelawny to secure the win in just over two hours and in the process secured 23 valuable points towards championship honours.

Hennis’ teammate, Akil Campbell out of Trinidad and Tobago, was a close second which accumulated another 17 points towards team AVR who made it a one/two finish.

Guyana’s Briton John had to settle for third place and 12 points riding for the Guyana NHT team.

American Chad Conley got the better of teammate and defending champion Andy Scarano for fourth and fifth place, respectively, for team 706 P out of Atlanta, Georgia.

For his effort, Hennis took home the winning first prize of US$500, and he was pleased that his team got the one/two finish to set them up nicely heading into tomorrow’s lengthy stage which will take the riders from Whitter Village to Discovery Bay, St Ann and back.

“Today’s strategy was to ride more on the defence, but it didn’t turn out that way as we went on offence and did what we had to do by making the break and pushing the break all the way to the end where I then let it out and nobody could hold my wheel.”

In the meantime, team Fire Wheels out of Miami secured a hat-trick in the master’s race as veteran Kirk Finnikin led teammates Andy Teixeira and Gareth Moore to the line.

For Finnikin, the race was thoroughly enjoyable with lots more riding to come over the next two days.

“It was a lovely course which was nice and flat with a few intervals. I can see already that the team is ready to answer to the call, but we have to pay attention and watch because the field has a lot of fit racers.”