Vot­ed the most out­stand­ing tinymite rid­ers at the re­cent East­er In­ter­na­tion­al Cy­cling Grand Prix, the pair of Liam Low­ell of the Madon­na Wheel­ers and Meli­na Lopez (Rigtech Son­ics), will go for top ho­n­ours on the open­ing day of the Na­tion­al Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships Thurs­day at the Na­tion­al Cy­cling Cen­tre in Cou­va, from 7 pm.

The Cham­pi­onships will fea­ture tinymites, ju­ve­niles, and mas­ters rid­ers all bid­ding for brag­ging rights. Lopez claimed the two four-lap sprint gold medals, lead­ing a Rigtech Son­ics one-two-three-four in both races on the open­ing day at the Grand Prix.

Low­ell's achieve­ments came in the lat­ter stages of the East­er week­end meet, as he could on­ly man­age sec­ond and third-place fin­ish­es in his two events ear­ly, but to­day, he will once again test his speed against a field that com­pris­es Je­meuel Joseph, El­isha Greene Jr, the son of for­mer na­tion­al cy­clist El­isha Greene, Isa­iah Sobers, and Jazhiel Ja­cob.

The ju­ve­nile cat­e­go­ry is ex­pect­ed to be dom­i­nat­ed by Kafele De­s­o­more of Ari­ma Wheel­ers or Shame­ka Hoyte of Va­por­wake Mul­ti­sport Cy­cle Club. Like Low­ell, De­s­o­more had a weak start to the Grand Prix but picked up in the lat­ter stages.

Hoyte, though, was sec­ond and third in her two ear­ly races and will be hop­ing to bet­ter her per­for­mances. Her main chal­lenge though will come from the bike of Arielle Greaves of Rigtech Son­ics, Kylee Young (Madon­na Wheel­ers), and Ky­la Hospedales of the Open Road Chal­lenge Ac­cept­ed Club.

Among the mas­ters' rid­ers, Shel­don Ramjit will have his hands filled in the 40-49 cat­e­go­ry as the top rid­er, with Rocky Ho­sein set to con­tin­ue his dom­i­nance in the 50-59 cat­e­go­ry. Joel Browne, the Ari­ma Wheel­ers cy­clist will em­brace chal­lenges from Cyril Fook, Wayne Samuel and Fitzger­ald Orosco in the mas­ters' 60-69 di­vi­sion, while four rid­ers- Clyde Pol­lon­ais (South­claine), Pat Nel­son (Break­away), Robert Far­rell (Evo­lu­tion Cy­cling Acad­e­my) and God­frey Clyne will re­new their ri­val­ry in the mas­ters' 70-plus cat­e­go­ry.