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Mitchell’s double delight

Zoenique Williams (left) and Nicole Mitchell

Nicole Mitchell took her double medal winning display all in stride.The 30-year cyclist won the bronze in the time trial and road race to take her overall Caribbean Cycling Championship medal haul to six.“Personally I think it went really well to medal in both,” she said. “There was only one other girl (Tamiko Butler) who managed to achieve that this weekend and we’ve both done it before. The field this year, especially in the road race, was significantly stronger.”Mitchell took particular satisfaction from her sprint finish for the final place on the podium.“I’m not a huge sprinter and the sprinting at home has been very limited generally because I’m racing with men and they are going to outkick me every time,” she said. “I kicked to a good finish in the Island Games so I had an idea it was there.“But that was a huge result for me to kick to third. I knew Dominican Republic had some good track cyclists with a good kick and I knew I had to get on that wheel. The opportunity came up and I just bided my time and went when I knew I could go and hold it.“I knew I needed to be top six for CAC but to still podium was unbelievable and I’m really happy with that. Bermuda outkicked in a bunch sprint and there were some very strong girls there. “Mitchell and team-mate Zoenique Williams applied pressure early in the race.“Zoenique and I had put in a few attacks early on and we both knew the response of the field, everybody was on me like white on rice and they weren’t chasing Zoenique,” Mitchell added. “When Tamiko went it was kind of a moment and Zoenique went and I knew that was the right move because they weren’t going to chase her.“She managed to make that bridge and it was very disorganised and nobody was willing to bring it back so it was a guaranteed podium for Bermuda.“That was what was important and I just had to focus on making sure that I was active in the group and if someone else was going to make that bridge I wanted to be a part of it so we had as many people up the road as we could.”Williams said: “This is definitely my biggest achievement. I’ve only been racing a year and a half and to be the road race champion and criterium champion and then come to CCC for the first time and podium is pretty exciting.“Getting a place on the podium was definitely a bonus for me and a bonus for Bermuda and Peter (Bermuda Bicycle Association President Peter Dunne) is really excited because that’s two spots for CAC Games.”Williams came into this year’s championships as an unknown quantity, something which seemed to work to her advantage in the road race.“It definitely worked in my favour,” she grinned. “Nicole and I did a couple of attacks and when I attacked on the peloton and looked back they didn’t chase me.“I’m not as good as a time trialist as Nicole so I knew I couldn’t pull through myself and would need somebody to help me.“The peloton caught me back up and I was just waiting for someone strong to go with and when Antigua girl (Tamiko Butler) went I was right there with Nicole and she looked at me and I just went with Antigua and that’s how we got the break from the peloton.”