Jaylen Briceño wins 27th Annual Junior Digi Valentine’s Cycling Tour

Photo Credit: William George Ysaguirre 

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: Jaylen Briceño won the 27th Annual Junior Digi Valentine’s Cycling Tour riding the three stages in four hours, five minutes, and 11 seconds. He took the top spot by 48 seconds.

On Saturday, Briceño captured the 38-mile Stage 1 Road Race that went from Belize to Hattieville on the George Price Highway to Data Pro via the Burrell Boom Road, and then extended to Digi Mirab in Belize City via the Philip Goldson Highway. That same afternoon he finished third in the Stage 2 3.6-mile Individual Time Trial in the John Smith Road. Then on Sunday, he finished fourth in the 51-mile Stage 3 Road Race that started and finished at Leslie’s Imports on the George Price Highway. From the start at Leslie’s, the race headed to Data Pro on the Burrell Boom Road via Hattieville, returned to the Faber’s Road Roundabout where it made a U-turn to Data Pro. From there it returned to finish in front of Leslie’s Imports.

Briceño opened a minute and 45 seconds lead in the first stage which he won in one hour, 37 minutes, and 12 seconds. That was enough to win the Valentine’s Tour by 48 seconds over Delton Rojas who clocked 4:05:59.

Briceño won Stage I in 1:37:12 ahead of Tejada of the Rolling Shattaz-BZ Boys and G-Flow’s Jamar Murry and Benito Gutierrez, respectively.

The Individual Time Trial was won by Tyler Tejeda of the Rolling Shattaz-BZ Boys in 00:07:56. Tejeda finished six seconds ahead of Rojas and 16 ahead of Briceño, who still led by 01:29.

In Stage 3, Briceño finished fourth behind Rojas, Ivan Usher, and Tejeda but was able to maintain a lead of 48 seconds to take the tour. Rojas had some comfort in winning the third 51-mile stage in 2:18:51.

Usher was third in the general classification followed by Tejeda in fourth and Benito Gutierrez of G-Flow in fifth.

Jaheim Lewis won the Youth Category in 4:14:39.