Tough road race course made survival the only objective

CAROLINE WICKHAM was delighted just to finish yesterday's gruelling road race. Held over five laps of an extremely testing 9.3-mile circuit, the Sarnian came home a creditable ninth.

As she said immediately afterwards: 'Sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth, I don't care - I just wanted to finish.'

Team manager Gary Wallbridge explained the difficulty of the race.

'It must have been incredibly hard riding out there. There were four or five miles of climbs into a headwind and it is a strong wind. If you get shredded off by the bunch, it is so tough to work on your own,' he said.

Wickham kept in contact with the leading pack for the first two laps.

By the start of the final lap, she and three other riders were approximately four minutes down on the five-strong peleton ahead of them.

She finished 8min. 28sec. behind winner Claire Moore, from the Isle of Man. The Sarnian clocked 2hr 34min. 30sec.

'I am a little bit tired,' was her understated comment at the finish.

'I am just relieved that I survived the course because when I looked at it and the inclines, I did not think I would be able to do five of those laps.'

Wallbridge praised her efforts.

'Caroline did well to keep in the second bunch although somewhere on the fifth lap she got dropped.

'I think this was a good course. These are gradual climbs that dragged on whereas most of ours tend to be sharp. In conditions like this, it was tough.'

Sonia Dean battled on bravely after being dropped by the end of the second lap. She was pulled out at the end of the fourth and was classified 11th.

'If you are with someone, it is okay because you can take it in turns to do the work and have chances to recover, but if you are dropped it is doubly difficult,' said Wallbridge.