TEAM FCG 12 STRONG CYCLING SQUAD COMPETES IN THE FIRST GRANFONDO GHANA 2021 RACE

Fenton was delighted to finalise the 12 strong squad for FC Group's new cycling squad Team FCG and trained in time for the first Granfondo Ghana 2021 Race taking place on 22nd August 2021.

The new and elite Team FCG, now fully supported and sponsored by FC Group with Fenton continuing to coach, advise and assist in all things Cycling are poised to compete in this and other major professional cycling events in Africa, a vision and passion held by Fenton who balances the management of FC Group and other entrepreneurial ventures with cycling expeditions across the globe.

His recent race before the Granfondo in Accra was the TransAtlanticWay '21, an extremely tough and unsupported ride of 2422.5 kilometres along the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland. Fenton comes with a wealth of cycling knowledge and dubs as MD to FC Group as well as ex-Chairman/now Treasurer for Kenmare Cycling Club and entrepreneur. During his travels to West Africa, managing FC Group sales activites, he engages the community with his passion for cycling through team coaching, sponsoring the team and other cycling ventures such as the Vida Cycling Program for young female and aspiring cyclists.

The team, during Fenton's last visit, registered and took part in the first Granfondo Ghana 2021 Race on Sunday 22nd August 2021 for a 100 kilometre race attracting over 200 professional and recreational cyclists from across West Africa - note Fenton with his citizenship in Ghana was qualified to participate as the 12th team member - and was delighted be in Accra at the time to take part in the race.

The route for the race started at the serene Legon Botanical Garden through Adenta, Somanya, Apire Hill, Mamfe, and decend to the Aburi Hill. The race is synonymous and in par with some of the scenic sporting events in Africa. The intention is also to showcase the beautiful cycling routes in Ghana - Ghana’s most beautiful and incredibly hard medium mountain climb, Apirede, as part of the 100km route - that helps attract international cyclists and boost tourism in Ghana.

The first half of the race on Sunday was fraught with aggressive riding in the peloton with one attack after another, and riders eager to form a breakaway from the peloton but every move was tracked down and blocked almost immediately. The breakaway eventually formed on the Apirede climb but the peloton stayed together as they hit the lower slopes of the second category climb. Apirede is a second -category climb covering 8km with the steepest section touching 20% gradient. The climb starts at 50km immediately after the riders turn off the main Somanya road to crossover to the Akuapim ridge.

When the race hit the steepest sections of the climb averaging 11% for 2km, the race was then split with riders littered across the entire hill. The stand out performers were: Maxwell Doku of Team FCG ; Prince Quaye of TBT Cycling Club; and Abdul Malik from Nigeria. They were the strongest and formed a breakaway opening a gap of 1min 20sec on the chasing group behind. However, a few kilometres down the road, Prince Quaye of TBT couldn’t follow the pace-setting of Maxwell Doku and Abdul Malik, and was dropped from the trio.

At 20km to the end of the race, Abdul Malik was the next to fall off leaving Maxwell Doku as the sole leader of the race at this point. Behind the duo there was a furious chase from a group of 4 riders including pre-race favourite Abdul Rahman of Quickstep Cycling Club, Victor Cudjoe of Gladiators Pro Cycling Club, Prince Kudufia of Team Epic Cycling Club and Francis Owusu of River Park Cycling Club working hard to close the gap rapidly on the solo leader and he was caught at 14km towards the end of the race. At this point the race became animated and it was a cat and mouse game as Prince Kudufia, 17-year-old from Team Epic Cycling Club attacked the now leading group of 5 opening a five second gap and pulling away with Victor Cudjoe and Abdul Rahman. The two chasers worked together to bring him back and on the home stretch it became a bunch sprint as Victor Cudjoe, the 30-year-old Policeman riding for Gladiators Pro Cycling Club showed his class and outsprinted the 5 riders to cross the line in a time of 2hr 47min 41sec to finish the demanding course in an average speed of 35.78km/h. Abdul Rahman and Prince Kudufia finished second and third respectively wrapping up the podium places.

For their prizes, the winner received a cash prize of GHS5,000, second and third receiving GHS1,500 and GHS1,000 respectively. The First Female rider received a cash prize of GHS2000 and GHS1,000 went to the winner of the over 50years category. There were also cash prize of GHS200 each for 4th to 10th positions.

There was great performance by all of team FC Group in Ghana's first Granfondo race with Tina taking the second place overall in the ladies with a very strong performance. Maxwell had another epic ride attacking on the climb taking two opponents with him that he had dropped by the summit with a good gap. He was finally caught and finished 6th in the race.

The entire team including the support team worked well together for its inaugural race with everyone doing their part. We wish the team well for their next race - The Teshie Homowo Cycling Challenge taking place on Saturday 4th September 2021. We'll bring you the results of the this race and trust Team FCG, who have been busy training, will do well in this race too!