Eleven-time na­tion­al road cy­cling cham­pi­on Emile Abra­ham and Guy Cos­ta, the dri­ver of the 2011 Carib Great Race cham­pi­on boat - Fire One, will go af­ter each oth­er when the an­nu­al Wheel­ers Cy­cle Club stages its Tour of San Fer­nan­do event. A new cham­pi­on will be crown be­cause last year's win­ner, Phil Mooney of the US, will not be here to de­fend his ti­tle. Cos­ta is al­so the reign­ing na­tion­al cri­teri­um cham­pi­on. The tour of the south­ern cap­i­tal promis­es to be very ex­cit­ing. The tour has been a ma­jor event on the lo­cal and south­ern Caribbean cy­cling cal­en­dar and this year the event promis­es to be as ex­cit­ing as ever.

Cy­clists of var­i­ous cat­e­gories, from BMX to over 60 Mas­ters, will vie for top spots in the two-day tour which will fea­ture two races. Race one starts on Sat­ur­day at 1 pm in front of Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, and will see cy­clists rid­ing through the chal­leng­ing cen­tral hills of Gran Cou­va, Bras­so, Tabaquite and Guaracara be­fore fin­ish­ing at the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um in Re­form. The sec­ond race ped­als off on Sun­day at 7 am from Har­ris Prom­e­nade and will see cy­clists rid­ing to Point Fortin and re­turn to San Fer­nan­do via Erin, Siparia and the Mos­qui­to Creek be­fore fin­ish­ing on the South Trunk Road in the vicin­i­ty of the Gulf City Mall. This year the race places greater em­pha­sis on the south­ern Bor­ough of Point Fortin as the rid­ers pass through the heart of the town, while the se­nior women, ju­ve­niles, mas­ter's 50-59 and 60+ start at Frisco Junc­tion while fin­ish­ing back at San Fer­nan­do.

Be­cause of cur­few lim­i­ta­tions, the pop­u­lar Speshie Cri­teri­um had to be can­celled un­for­tu­nate­ly. This year a to­tal of $22,000 in prizes will be up for grabs with the over­all win­ners of each cat­e­go­ry re­ceiv­ing ad­di­tion­al re­wards. There will al­so be a prize for the top lo­cal cy­clist. Al­so, in the fray are Varun Ma­haraj, Col­in Wil­son, Bar­ry Luces, Adam Alexan­der, Gevan Samuel and Roger Smart, all of whom are ex­pect­ed to be the greater lo­cal con­tenders. In­ter­na­tion­al cy­clists Lang­ford Black­wood (Ja­maica), Phillip Clarke (Bar­ba­dos), Diego Gar­avi­to (Colom­bia), Serghei Tvet­cov (Rus­sia) and Lang Reynolds (USA), are among the in­vit­ed guests who are ex­pect­ed to pro­vide stiff com­pe­ti­tion.

Ma­jor com­peti­tors are ex­pect­ed to be tak­en from Col­in Wil­son, Gevan Samuel, Lin­ford Black­wood, Stephen Mungrup (Team Trek); Bar­ry Luces, Dim­itrey Har­vey, Keron Bram­ble, Rudy Ash­ton (Oibelt Son­ics); Andy Chalmers, Paul de Ver­tu­il, Ivan Charles (Cook­ie's Ca­su­als); Has­sam Mc Lean, Clyde Pol­lon­ais (South­claine); Kevin Tin­to, Troy Nel­son, Mark Smith and Ce­cil Hack­ett (Bike Smith); Jef­fery La Fond, Cyril Fook (Park­side); Varun Ma­haraj, Jov­ian Gomez (Madon­na Wheel­ers). Younger cy­clists who are ex­pect­ed to per­form well in­clude Dim­itri Har­vey, Samuel Alleyene, Justin Roberts, Jim­mone Roberts, Ur­ba Bourne, Nicholas Stew­art and 'Bre­do' Fron­tin.

Dal­hia Palmer, Louise Smart and Alexan­dra Con­sten will be among many oth­ers com­pet­ing in the women's cat­e­go­ry. Mas­ters' cy­clists in­clud­ing Cyril Fook, Jef­frey La Fond, Ronald Pe­ters, God­frey Clyne, Pe­ter Her­nan­dez, Joey Nunes, Mark Mas­si­ah and Kent Luces are al­so ex­pect­ed to pro­vide very good per­for­mances.