The final leg of the Centre Point Cycles Road Race national championship which was held last Sunday at Zurrieq saw defending champion Etienne Bonello of Team Greens retaining his title for another year.

Stephania Magri, also of Team Greens, won the women’s title after she had won it in 2005.

Held under hot and humid weather conditions the race was an interesting one from the first laps. Being 100kms long, good tactics played an important role to determine the outcome of the race.

The men’s race was keenly contested as numerous attacks took part in the opening laps. Qormi CC’s Jack Schiavone was particularly eager to break away as he attacked continuously until he managed to get away with Steve Sciberras of Mosta AF Sign Studio. Team Greens immediately sent James Cutajar in the break to avoid using energy to pull back the break later in the race.

The trio in front managed to open a lead of about two minutes, while back in the main group the championship contenders battled each other on every incline of the course, particularly at ‘Tal-Maqluba’ where the uneven road surface made it even more difficult.

Etienne Bonello showed to have the form of the Tour of Malta as he powered his way in the climbs. He was challenged by a very talented neo-elite Adrian Sciberras of Mosta AF Sign Studio.

However Mosta’s Patrick Scicluna and Maurice Formosa were the closest to Bonello for the title. By mid race the main group started to gain ground on the leading riders who, by the end of the penultimate lap, were caught and their lead neutralised.

Into the final lap and up in the final climb, only five riders could keep the pace, namely Bonello, Reuben Colombo and Ramon Grech of Team Greens and Formosa and Scicluna of Mosta.

The race was determined with a sprint finish where Bonello usually excels. He crossed the line ahead of Formosa and Scicluna who just edged Colombo by a few centimetres.

Bonello was undoubtedly crowned national champion after winner all three championship races. In the other categories, Stephania Magri was ahead of Michelle Wood (Mosta) in the ladies’, Emanuel Bezzina of Mosta finished ahead of Michael Lia (Mosta) and Cliff Micallef (Qormi) in the Masters’, Charles Sammut (Team Greens) edged Philip Borg and Sebastian Attard of Qormi in the 50+ category, while James Dimech, Stephen Behan and Daniel Borg of Mosta were the podium finishers of the Under 15 race. Luigi Mifsud was the winner of the Juniors race.

The cycling calendar continues with the Time Trial national championships with the first round next Sunday at the Bahar ic-Caghaq Coast Road circuit.