Bowditch and Le Page claim new records

ANN BOWDITCH's hill training paid off as she smashed the women's record in the Guernsey Velo Club's Roquaine Regatta Hillclimb. In so doing she beat the benchmark of two minutes for the first time.

'I have been using the hill in training and having come close to the record, I knew I was in good shape. I couldn't have tried any harder; my legs felt like they were on fire approaching the finish.'

The annual event takes place on the testing Pleinmont hill where the tricky changes of gradient offer a good test of a rider's skill.

Tobyn Horton underlined his durability with an overall victory.

Horton, who has been in stunning form of late, pushed Graham Le Maitre into second place but the latter's consolation was a new over-40s record. He trimmed 10 seconds off the previous best.

Meanwhile, Chris Le Page proved once again he is the current king of road racing with a victory on the combined Vazon and Coudre circuits.

The five-lap senior race starts at Pleinmont and heads straight up the unrelenting climb of Le Coudre, before joining the Vazon circuit, a distance of 11 miles per lap.

Le Page wasted no time pushing the pace, with many of the 16 starters struggling on the first climb of the day.

By the second lap the lead pack were reduced to just seven and Le Page's quest for victory was helped by the returning Paul Brehaut.

In only his second race of the season, the Island Games time-trial silver medallist looked in good shape and was working well with Le Page to soften up the remaining cyclists.

By the start of lap three, the leaders were down to just three, with criterium champion Horton the only rider capable of maintaining the fierce pace.

Marcus Elliott and Danny Guillemette chased hard to regain contact but it was in vain as the leaders went through each lap more quickly than the existing record.

On the final lap, only Brehaut and Le Page remained, Horton having been dropped on the penultimate climb.

At the finish, Le Page took the judge's verdict by half-a-wheel's length. 'That was a very hard race,' he said afterwards.

'It was so close I wasn't sure who'd won,' said the exhausted winner who beat the race record held by Caesarean Chris Spence.

The three-lap categories two and three event was won by Ben Walden. With Allan Renyard and Lyn Coombs for company, Walden had to use all his race craft to improve on his runner-up position of 2003.

By the final climb Walden was out alone having turned up the pace, but Coombs dug in to regain in contact on the run down to Vazon and take second place.

Ben Burtenshaw was the only under-16 rider to compete in the one-lap junior event and for the second time in three days, was disqualified for taking a wrong turn.