Cycling: Mohan Shopping Centre-sponsored New Year’s tour |06 January 2015

Confiance wins season-opening tour

The final podium of the Mohan Shopping Centre-sponsored New Year’s tour. Minister Vincent Meriton and NSC chief executive Giovanna Rousseau and Mr Mohan Chetty presented the winners including overall winner Confiance (second left, back row) with their prizes

The 2015 cycling season opened last weekend with the New Year’s Tour which comprised three races over three days and the overall winner was Fadi Confiance.
A member of the Eco Riders team, Confiance claimed two wins and a second place finish in the Mohan Shopping Centre-sponsored tour to finish with an cumulative time of 5 hours 1 minute 11 seconds (5h01:11).

Stage one – a 63km circuit race – raced on Friday January 2 started off at the Mohan Shopping Centre at Plaisance and the cyclists pedalled to Cascade and back via the Providence highway, before heading down to Roche Caïman and eventually back to the starting line. They completed the circuit four times.

The race winner was decided on a sprint and it was Confiance who crossed the line first in a time of 1h36:56. Second placed Ricky Rosalie of Classic Design and third placed Ahmad Arissol of Life Cycle were credited with the same time.

On Saturday morning, the cyclists again lined up in front of the Mohan Shopping Centre, this time for a 20.6km individual time trial event. This time they went up to the Roche Tortue monument via Cascade and down the Providence highway before making a U-turn at the CCCL (Civil Construction Company Limited) roundabout to head back to the Roche Tortue monument and back to the start line via Cascade.

Again Confiance was fastest to the finish line and his time was 28 minutes 38 seconds (28:38). Classic Design’s Edrick Roucou settled for second place after clocking a time of 29:13 and in third position was Life Cycle’s Ahmad Arissol whose time was 29:21.

The final and third race was a 98.4km road race. From the Mohan Shopping Centre at Plaisance, the cyclists went to Victoria via the Bois de Rose Avenue and around the north coast via Anse Etoile, before making a U-turn at Beau Vallon to return to Victoria. From there they made their way south through Plaisance, Cascade, Anse Aux Pins, Anse Royale, Takamaka, Baie Lazare, Anse à la Mouche and Anse Louis. From Anse Louis, they retraced their route to reach the finishing line at the Mohan Shopping Centre.

Edrick Roucou was the winner of the gruelling race and his time was 2h55:37 – the same time registered by Confiance and Rosalie who were ranked second and third.

Confiance finished as the overall winner with a cumulative time of 5h01:11, while Rosalie settled for second place with 5h01:58 and Arissol finished third with 5h07:40.

Classic Design finished as the best team with a time of 14h54:26.

The prizes were presented by Social Affairs, Community Development and Sports Minister Vincent Meriton, National Sports Council chief executive Giovanna Rousseau and Hogan Chetty of Mohan Shopping Centre.

S. N.