Brehaut gives peloton no chance with break

PAUL BREHAUT was in a class of his own when winning the eighth race in the Guernsey Velo Club's road-race championship by more than four minutes. It was a matter of when rather than if Brehaut would make his move.

There was a good mix of elite and category-one riders, which made for an interesting first two of five laps up Le Coudre and through Les Sages, looping around the Little Chapel, down Talbot Valley, along Le Gele Road and out onto the coast before heading back up Le Coudre.

Some riders were prepared to make their impression on the race and veteran rider Dave Gallienne was one of those who tried to get off the front of the group but it came to nothing as the peloton chased down everything.

With three laps remaining, Brehaut made his move and no one had an answer. This did, however, cause problems for some of the category-one riders as they disappeared out of the back of the peloton.

Brehaut, meanwhile, was pulling away as he embarked on what was a 34-mile time trial to the finish while the other riders battled it out for the remaining podium positions and championship points.

Rob Smart and Mike Dean were sharing much of the work in the peloton.

The danger man was Alan Rowe. He had shown his strength up the climb on lap three and perhaps this is when he realised that he was in with a chance of breaking free.

He spent the next lap resting at the back of the bunch before he made a move near the top of Le Coudre.

Smart and Dean were the casualties as the riders gave chase.

However, Rowe's attack was short-lived, as the pace slowed a little and gave Smart and Dean a chance to get back on.

But Rowe attacked again on the climb of lap five and this time it was a far more convincing attack.

Still the peloton worked well and caught Rowe within a few miles.

With a seven-way sprint for second, Marcus Elliott very sportingly agreed to lead out the group and Carl Thomson took full advantage to take second with Stuart Le Tissier in third, followed by Tony Bleasdale, Ann Bowditch, Alan Rowe, Rob Smart and Elliott.

In the four-lap category-two race, Bob Green outsprinted Graham Le Maitre to win in 2hr 12min. 03sec. as Lars Persson suffered in the heat and Keith Brown outsprinted Ben Walden to win the three-lap category-three race in 1hr 39min. 34sec.