It was literally men against boys when Alvin Phoon and Malvin Lai competed in the 50km Super Challenge, one of the races in the OCBC Cycle Singapore 2010 held at the Marina Bay Floating Platform on Sunday, March 7. Alvin, aged 17, and Malvin, 18 were pitted against 112 older and more experienced riders and both had an excellent race to boot. Alvin finished in 10^th place with a time of 1hr 8min 58.8sec, while Malvin came in 12^th overall in 1hr 8min 59.5sec.

 

With the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) looming on the horizon, officials at the Singapore Amateur Cycling Association (SACA) were more than happy with the cyclists’ overall performance. Phoon and Lai were part of a team of eight riders competing in the event and SACA’s YOG cycling representative, Ramlan Abdul Latiff, was glad that the cyclists had an opportunity to put things in perspective. “A race like this gives our riders a preview of what to expect at the YOG, and gives us an idea as to how we can better help them prepare for the Games”. SACA will choose a team of three boys and one girl for the Games in August. It is understood that the final team will only be announced in May, but as things stand, we can probably already name two of the cyclists in that team.