Gold number four for Bowditch but Brehaut crashes out

ANN BOWDITCH completed her full set of medals with a sprint finish to claim a tight Town criterium race last night. Four gold, a silver and two bronze was a fine return for a great week's cycling from the 32-year-old.

She showed her intentions from the off, leading the 10-woman field as they started the 30-minute ride before the final five laps.

'Tactically the aim was to hit it hard from the start,' she said. 'I went off quickly but we stayed together.'

Bowditch said that Bermudian Lynn Patchett's attempts to break the field played into her hands, as she sat behind, ready to strike.

'She did not have a team around her to help her like we did, so she had to attack a lot, while we could drop off and recover and then go again,' she said.

'As far as winning was concerned I had to be in front before I went into the final corner because I knew I was with great sprinters.

'As I set off on my sprint I could see their wheels either side of me, but I just wanted this one so badly. I thought I would not let it go.'

Bowditch went from half a lap out to break the shorter sprinters from the Isle of Man who claimed the other medals.

'It could not have been a better place to win a gold. I could just hear a wall of noise as I went by.

'This was just the best way to end the Games for me - a race on the seafront in front of my home crowd and all my friends.

'I thought it would be really tough to get a medal tonight because I had raced all week - but I was so excited I just went for it.'

Sonia Le Maitre and Lyn Coombs were left in the chasing group and finished seventh and eighth, 30 seconds behind.

Men's hopes of a medal were dashed with a crash just yards into the first of the final five laps of the race.

Paul Brehaut had kept himself in contention near the front of a second group of riders over the 40 minutes. At one stage they had been 14 seconds down on the breakaway group, but the pack closed up to a group of 26 before the hectic last laps.

But Brehaut crashed out opposite the Albert Statue and took Elliot Baxter, with a medal in each race so far, with him.

'Isle of Man were cleaning up tactically - they had the strongest line up - and I had to go with them.

'I went into the corner hard to attack it and hopefully go with them, but the pedal touched the road, the wheel came up in the air and I went into the barriers.'

The crash shocked the race into action, and a further crash two laps out nearly caused chaos on the last lap as marshalls waved red flags to slow the leading pack.

Danny Guillemette was Guernsey's best-placed rider in 16th position.

'There were a lot of top boys in this field,' he said.

Both Guillemette and Brehaut praised the hundreds who lined the seafront course.

'The crowd was fantastic, they spurred me on when my legs were burning,' said Guillemette.

Tony Bleasdale came 19th and Aaron Bailey also crashed out late on.