Albury rules Riyadh Wheelers event

With the Riyadh Wheelers racing season end fast approaching and some top riders not defending their positions in the championship table, rare opportunities present themselves when anyone who had a slow start to the season can now make their mark.
Apart from prolific podium placer and this week’s winner Chad Albury, names such as Kris Ahlin, Geron Guanlao, Stuart Gillespie, Gordon Lawrie, Andy MacLaughlan, Chris Johnson and Tony Williams, all upped their game which resulted in gaining their best positions.
The race was a unique format of a 5km time trial, immediately followed by a 32km road race. This format is usually dominated by a single rider in form, but this year no one would have predicted Geron Guanlao would take the TT stage against the specialists.
With individual positions in both events to count, consistency was the key and this was demonstrated by the podium which all recorded top 6 positions in both events.
Guanlao hung on for 5th overall but admitted to have nothing left for the road stage. Making a trip from the Eastern Province worthwhile, Jeremy Mirasol and Lawrie were pleased with their efforts, while a rueful Martin Ball could have finished higher and admitted to doing too much work in the road race and was also recovering from a tough event the previous weekend.
All in all, this format gained the approval of most and with the triathlon season just around the corner, the name of Feras Alhamoud stands out as one who has prepared particularly well.
Junior rider Thomas Cudey went unchallenged this week, while the return of Veronique Mathy guaranteed podium honors would be a race for 2nd.
Carrefour Le Mall provided the refreshments and is looking forward to the next event, the prestigious Carrefour Le Mall 100km road race.
Results:
1 C. Albury, 2 K. Ahlin, 3 J. Kuba, 4 J. Mirasol, 5 G. Guanlao, 6 S. Gillespie, 7 N. Daa, 8 M. Ball, 9 G. Lawrie, 10 A. MacLachlan, 11 C. Johnson, 12 T.Williams, 13 R. Patrick, 14 A. Carinan, 15 G. Muetze, 16 S. Elliot, 17 G.Aguilar, 18 F. Alhammoud, 19 A. Maniago, 20 A. Cuesta, 21 D. Wright, 22 M. Gauval. 23 P. Foster, 24 J. Cordial, 25 P. McParland, 26 K.Pickles, 27 T. Mathy, 28 C. Brown, 29 P. Cudey, 30 K. Walsh, 31 D. Pottinger, 32 J. Sunga, 33 M. Suckling, 34 M.Webb, 35 R. Flores, 36 E. Lando, 37 M. Lincoln, 38 J. Cortez, 39 D. Oliver, 40 J. Javier, 41 J. Garbutt, 42 G. Zondach, 1 V. Mathy, 44 P. Green, 45 Y. Forero, 46 D. Del Rosario, 47 A. Garcia, 48 R. Chan, 2 J. Jaruskova, 50 F. Requillo, 51 C. Morelos, 52 R. Catoneon, 53 R. Mayor, 54 D. Petkovski, 3 M. Araujo, 1 T. Cudey, DNF V. Engel, G. Morete, D. Ella.
Categories: Open Geron Guanlao, Veteran Chad Albury, Master Gordon Lawrie, Senior Jiri Kuba, Junior Thomas Cudey, Cat B Veronique Mathy