Between the 28th and 31st March 2019, the Malta Cycling teams continued to gain more successes abroad when the both the representative male and female teams participated in the Grand Fondo in the Paphos area in Cyprus. The Women's team composed of Marie Claire Aquilina, Lara Buttigieg and Anjelika Balzan Ruggier finished first in the general team classification, while that Male Malta Team 1 composed of Etienne Bonello, William Hili, Jason Vella, Brandon Sultana, Clive Bugeja and Mariano Cassar finished third in the general team Men classification among 12 other teams. These races consisted of one Time Trail and two Road Races and were held under the auspices of the UCI.
The group was led by Joe Bajada, Secretary General of the Malta Cycling Federation, assisted delegate Edward Enriquez. The best female cyclist was Marie Claire Aquilina ended with a victory in the Time Trial in the category between 40 and 44 years. Then in the first road race she had mechanical failures which affected her a lot as she had to be content with fourth place. Then the day after, Aquilina recovered and ended in third place in the same category and third overall.
Out of the Male team named of Malta 1, the best was Etienne Bonello who went twice to finish second in his category between 40 and 44 years. Even he finished second overall. However in the most difficult elite category, for ages between 19 and 33 years, the best was William Hili as he always finishes the first of the Maltese in this elite category. He was followed by Jason Vella and the young Gozitan cyclist Brandon Sultana who had an encouraging and positive debut. Even Clive Bugeja has conducted well in the group which among other things had a very good Time Trial although it was raced in the most difficult windy and rainy weather. Even Mariano Cassar had good races. The team with the name of Malta 2 was composed mainly of cyclist of over 50 years as Joseph Micallef, Steve Mifsud, and Kenneth Caruana together with Justin Gauci and Ryan Spiteri gain a lot of experience.
The Maltese Cycling Federation wishes to thank the Maltese Olympic Committee, Sport Malta, and also Emirates Airlines for all their assistance.