Bowditch dips under the hour

ANN BOWDITCH has achieved one of cycling's most sought-after milestones - a sub-hour 25-mile time trial. The Island Games gold medallist can claim to be the first Guernsey woman to achieve this landmark, which she accomplished near Chelmsford at the Redbridge CC event on the hottest day of the year.

To top her day off, she won the women's competition against some experienced testers (time triallists).

However, the weekend was far from perfect for the Sarnian.

Bowditch spent two hours in traffic jams on the M25 on Friday evening, making what is normally a three-hour journey into a five-hour one, and the following day she had to review two courses as there was some doubt which would be ridden due to road works.

The heat was so bad that she did not do her normal pre-race ride that day to loosen her legs because of the risk of dehydration and the general feeling of fatigue.

The road works took the decision of which course would be used out of the organisers' hands and it meant a move to a sporting, more hilly one.

'I had travelled to the UK to do one of the best courses in the country, so I was disappointed when the course was changed so late after such an unpleasant journey,' said Bowditch.

'Nevertheless, I felt very focused on the start line and was up for the win. I was quite surprised to get under the hour in those conditions on a sporting course.'

She took to the road at 7.07am in a high temperature.

The first two miles of the course were on rough roads and it was important to be alert to avoid the potholes. It was onto a rolling dual carriageway for the next eight miles before turning off onto more rough road with hills to contend with for four miles. It was then back onto the faster section of the dual carriageway for another nine miles before the final two miles to the finish.

Bowditch finished in a time of 59min. 17sec., which put her 15sec. ahead of Lynne Taylor with only 40sec. separating the top five women.

There were some big names in the men's event, with Michael Hutchinson taking the honours in 49-25 and ex-professional rider Sean Yates the runner-up.

'I thought I had blown it after the first couple of miles. I felt tired and found the first stretch of dual carriageway tough. At the time I didn't realise quite how much the gradient rose in places.

'I felt much stronger when I got to the hills and by the return I felt very strong and powered through the second half of the race,' said Bowditch.