Bowditch outgunned and outnumbered out west

ANN BOWDITCH collected her third medal of the week, but this time of the duller, bronze variety, from the women's road race yesterday morning. Bowditch could not live with the speed and tactics of the gold medal-winning Bermudian team, whose Lynn Patchett romped to an individual victory in a race where the road safety improvements were a resounding success.

Patchett won the 46.5-mile race by almost five minutes and Bowditch lost out to Bermuda's Melanie Claude in a long sprint finish.

Bowditch later said she had given up on a third straight individual gold at these Games when Patchett moved a minute and a half clear on the fourth of the six 7.7 mile-long circuits.

'Bermuda are a class act - they were prepared to put riders up the road,' the Guernsey rider added.

Bowditch also paid tribute to the efforts of team-mate Lyn Coombs, who eventually had to settle for ninth in the 12-strong field.

'She did as much as she could at the front early on.'

With three classy riders in Patchett, Claude and Julia Hawley, Bermuda were always likely to target Bowditch and Watterson, the road race champion from the two previous Games.

Initially it was Jersey's Ruth Bunney who broke clear.

By the end of the opening lap she was 1min. 11sec. to the good and Jersey spectators were getting premature winning feelings.

By the end of lap two Bunney had stretched out to 1min. 48sec. clear on the chasing group, which still included all three Guernsey riders.

But the sluggish pace was upped on the third lap and as they came through the finish at halfway point in the race Patchett was 11sec. up on Bunney with the chasing group of five a further 8sec. adrift.

The Bermudian, pipped for gold by hundredths of a second in the time-trial, had thrown down the gauntlet and with Claude and Hawley working against Bowditch and the two Manx riders, Patchett was away.

By the end of lap four she was 40sec. up on the chasers and at the bell she was 2min. 4sec. clear.

As the chasing bunch took the bell themselves it was obvious that they were content to let Patchett have the glory.

And so it was.

Four were involved in the sprint for the minor medals and Bowditch did not quite have the legs to get clear of Claude. Fletcher took fourth, Hawley fifth and the defending champion sixth.

Men's Cycling

'THAT was very, very hard,' groaned Paul Brehaut after taking sixth place in the 69.3-mile road race on the L'Eree circuit.

He had hoped for a top 10 finish and was within a few metres of another individual medal, but lost out in the big sprint on the western end of Plaisance road.

Up ahead, Elliott Baxter won his second gold of the Games with a brilliant solo ride, while Andrew Roche, the defending champion, claimed silver with a devastating burst on the ninth and final 7.7-mile lap.

Brehaut still harboured hopes for another silver when he begun the final circuit in the thick of the main bunch, 1min. 50sec. adrift of the runaway leader.

But on the painful climb up Pleinmont Roche made his move.

The pace was quick throughout. Indeed, the second lap saw the leaders - Jersey's Sam Firby, Isle of Man's Christian Varley, Ynys Mon's Richard Jones and Saaremaa's Riko Raim - go 10sec. inside the course record set by Ian Brown and Dave Hobson 14 years ago.

The same quartet led by 15sec. after three laps, but by the end of the fourth Baxter was 27sec. out in front of a chasing group of nine.

Guernsey's Danny Guillemette tried to bridge the gap between the chasers and the next group including Brehaut, but Baxter was away and over the next four and a half laps continued to extend his lead.