Last Sunday saw the first team time trial organised by the newly formed Greens Cycling Club. This type of cycling event used to be held in older times and its re-introduction in the local cycling calendar went down very well with the cycling community. This event which was sponsored by Greens Supermarket was held last Sunday at Salina Coast Road, under splendid weather conditions. Three or four men teams had to cover a distance of just above 41 kms each starting at two minutes intervals.
The race turned out to be a battle between three teams which Greens fielded their best time trialists in their top team which included no-one less than Time Trial Champion Etienne Bonello, Ramon Grech, James Cutajar and Reuben Colombo.
Mosta AF Sign Studio also setup at time trial force led by time trial runner up Johann Vassallo, emerging junior Luigi Mifsud and the Sciberras brothers Adrian and Steve. Another strong team was formed by cycling legends Peter Gatt, Brian Magri from Team Greens and Jack Schiavone of Qormi Cycling Club, Junior rider Christian Formosa of team Greens also rode with the them. These three teams had very close times in the initial laps, However the team led by Bonello started to pick up some good momentum and clearly was leading the race as the finish line approached.
Dispite that this team lost Reuben Colombo in the initial laps due to breading difficulties, the team managed to stop the clock on the 59th minute, averaging 42km/hr. Mosta AF Sign Studio finished second in 1:01:07 while Team Greens/Qormi were third in 1:01:41.
Another interesting battle took place for the 50+ riders where Qormi CC managed to beat Mosta AF Sign Studio with just 12 seconds. Stephania Magri and Danica Spiteri of Team Greens where the only ladies and clocked 1:09:36 while the under 15 team of Mosta who had to cover half the distance rode distinctly in 0:37:47.
The race was run very smooth with the aid of the Malta Cycling Federation, club offiicials and the Malta Police. Before the race a one minute silence was held in memory of a close cycling relative Connie Grima who sadly passed away the week before. Cycling will keep rolling with a rode race to be held at Zebbug by Mosta AF Sign Studio next Sunday.
Further information can be obtain by visiting www.mostacyclingclub.com. In the meamtime a selection process for the national team is taking place as the team will be competing in the Internation Tour of Libya this March which covers a distance of 830 kms over 7 days.