Le Maitre and Bowditch the stars of the climbs

GRAHAM LE MAITRE beat Ann Bowditch by just one second on handicap to claim the honours as the Guernsey Velo Club once again provided the first event in the Rocquaine Regatta - the climb of the Pleinmont hill. To add extra interest, this year's event also included the climb behind the Imperial Hotel with the combined times counting towards the hill-climb championship.

The hill climb is always a difficult event to handicap due to the relatively few who take part and the ongoing improvement of the younger riders.

Disappointingly, there were only eight entrants and with the handicapped scratch riders not taking part, all eyes were on Le Maitre, Bowditch and Nathan Baudains to take a win on the night.

With that trio being the last to go, it was Tim Holmes who set a target to beat as he made the climb in 2min. exactly.

However, that standard did not last long as Bowditch smashed her own record by 2.6sec. in clocking a time of 1min. 54.4sec. and Le Matire shaved 0.7sec. off the over-40s' record with a winning time of 1-50.3.

Baudains also came in under two minutes, which was a creditable performance considering that he was using trainers and flat pedals.

On handicap, Holmes came third behind Le Maitre and Bowditch and four of the other five riders were less than six seconds behind the winner.

The Imperial climb is slightly shorter than the Pleinmont one and it was a case of who had something in reserve for it.

In the end, Bowditch was the fastest as she recorded a time of 1-32.7, some three seconds in front of Le Maitre with Holmes taking third.

The combined result was a win for Le Matire followed by Bowditch, Holmes, Baudains, Ben Hall, Gary Robert, Callum Hill-Smith and James Gower.

The five-mile event earlier in the week had to be curtailed following an accident involving Tracey Dowinton which effectively blocked the road. Fortunately, she appears to have suffered only heavy bruising.