Pe­ter Schult­ing from the Nether­lands claimed vic­to­ry in the open­ing race of the To­ba­go In­ter­na­tion­al Cy­cle Clas­sic in the sis­ter-isle of To­ba­go yes­ter­day. In a gru­elling 120 kilo­me­tre event that took rid­ers from Shir­van Road, along the Claude Noel High­way and through Carn­bee and Buc­coo and back to the start­ing point, the Dutch­man re­cov­ered from his fifth po­si­tion in the first three laps of the 10-lap race, to take the lead and main­tain it to the fin­ish for his club PSL.

He crossed the fin­ish line in a quick time of two hours, 27 min­utes and 00.21 sec­onds for a com­fort­able lead on his clos­est ri­val, sec­ond place Win­ston David who was rep­re­sent­ed Team Phar­ma­co of the Unit­ed States (2:27.47.36) sec­onds. Bar­ba­dos Mar­loe Rod­man, win­ner of the race back in 2015, got two flat tyres which pre­vent­ed any chance he had of com­ing away with a vic­to­ry in the cir­cuit race.

Mean­while de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Arno Van Der Zwet of the Nether­lands was a non-fac­tor in the race af­ter he got his bike and oth­er rac­ing equip­ment late Tues­day night, but not in time to make an im­pact. The Dutch­man who was un­able to train for the race, de­spite ar­riv­ing on the is­land last week Tues­day, lost his lug­gage in tran­sit from flight Con­dor.

Un­der cool con­di­tions through the streets of To­ba­go caused by over­cast con­di­tions, Van Der Zwet who rep­re­sent­ed Team PSL failed to fin­ish the race. Ger­many’s Ken Tilman who al­so touched down on the is­land late Tues­day, se­cured third in 2:27.46.79 sec­onds while Cu­ba’s Vin­cente Sanabria and Colom­bia’s Den­nis Ramirez were fourth and fifth re­spec­tive­ly for Jet Blue Cy­cling Club and Raiders Cy­cle Club.

Joshua Alexan­der was the first TT rid­er to cross the line for Team Raiders in a time of 2:28.22.88 sec­onds.