Owen heartbreak - Bowditch's joy

JOSH OWEN won't forget in a hurry his trip to mountain biking's Southern Series race in the New Forest. The talented youngster had his expensively built bike stolen from the top of a car roof rack, possibly never to be seen again.

'It was quite heartbreaking,' said Owen.

'I had just spent about a grand on it,' added the Year 11 Les Beaucamps student who competed on a borrowed bike but admitted he had had the stuffing knocked out of him by the incident.

'I just felt bad about it all race,' said one of the youngest of the Guernsey Velo Club contingent who travelled to the meeting.

Rob Smart, Guernsey's top cross-country rider, was among them.

'Josh's bike was on top of Pete Miller's car and parked outside their B & B in Weymouth, locked and strapped up into a special bike rack on the roof.

'It was stolen sometime between 1 and 7am on Saturday,' added Smart, who thinks the bike would probably now be of little use to the thieves.

'Pete had footprints all up his bonnet and boot where they had climbed up onto the car. They also tried to take Matt Osborn's bike but either couldn't or someone saw them.'

Miller spent a couple of hours on Saturday morning driving around the town in an attempt to find the stolen bike, but to no avail.

Owen, who reported the incident to the police, said he still has not heard anything of its whereabouts.

In the race, Owen borrowed Miller's bike and with a strong finish placed a creditable eighth, but his day contrasted markedly to that of GVC road racer Ann Bowditch who travelled to south Wales and finished sixth in the national 50-mile time trial.

It was one of her best performances in her least-favourite events and for good measure picked up a team medal with her Science in Sport team which unexpectedly beat the pre-race favourites, GS Strada.

Bowditch improved on her previous 50-mile best by more than four minutes in clocking 2hr 4min. 19sec., averaging 24mph.

The Guernsey woman had caught her minute marker by 10 miles and proceeded to catch and pass others.

'I was very careful with my pacing strategy and I was conscious that I didn't want to suffer late in the race for an over-zealous start.

'The lumpy back road meant that it was not possible to ride at the same effort throughout the race but I was continuously monitoring how I felt and adjusted my effort accordingly.

'I do relatively few races of this distance so I am extremely happy with my ride.'

Bowditch finished less than a minute behind the bronze medallist but with the Science in Sport team filling the first seven places, they comfortably claimed the trophy and gave Bowditch her first national time-trial medal.

'It's great to be part of the Science in Sport team. It has really lifted my spirits and with the team award at the back of your mind you know you have to keep pushing as you don't want to let your colleagues down.'