Bowditch out, but men's star Brehaut will ride

ANN BOWDITCH, the home heroine of the 2003 Island Games, is a notable absentee from the seven-strong 'road' cycling team selected for Rhodes. Bowditch wants to concentrate on June's 25 and 50-mile national time-trial competitions and develop her new interest of indoor pursuit racing.

'It's always a difficult call, to be honest,' she said.

'The Island Games always comes at a bad time for me.

'It's always a 50-50.

'Probably come next summer I will wish I was going.'

Newly-elected Velo Club president Gary Wallbridge still harbours hopes that Bowditch will step on the plane to Rhodes, but is happy with the squad chosen.

'I think that what we've got on the road side is the five best men and, without Ann, the two best women.'

Wallbridge said that the decision to name the team six months ahead of the event was done to allow the best possible preparation.

'We could have left the decision to April, but we wanted to try and give the cyclists an uninterrupted training programme.

The GVC president was team manager in Shetland and believes the 2007 team will be stronger, especially now that Paul Brehaut has committed himself to the cycling team when he could have accepted an invitation to join the triathlon squad.

'I think it's the right decision. He is such a good cyclist. He's a top cyclist and a good leader.'

Overall, the team is geared very slightly towards a team medal in the time trial, with Brehaut, Aaron Bailey and Tony Bleasdale being the top three in Guernsey's 25-mile time trial championship in 2006.

Brehaut has already proved he's capable of an individual medal at this discipline, having claimed a silver in Guernsey in 2003.

Tobyn Horton is very likely to be a strong contender in the road race and the team should be strong enough to support him in that event and the criterium.

As far as rivals go, the Isle of Man are always strong and consistently send a very good team.

They have strength in depth and can boast several world champions among their number.

Thankfully, for Guernsey and everyone else riding in Rhodes, Mark Cavendish, who won the criterium in Guernsey 2003, is now a continental professional, riding for T-Mobile.

Since the Guernsey Games he has gone on to win the Commonwealth, world and national titles on the track.

Historically, Jersey are strong, with riders such as Chris Spence and Sam Firby likely to take part, as are Saaremaa, who have previously managed to field Russian Olympic riders in their team.

Bermuda are becoming increasingly strong in the road race as they proved in 2005 with a gold medal in Shetland.

One of the biggest factors will be the heat.

Even though the cycling events will take place in the late afternoon into early evening, the temperature could really make the difference between winning and suffering badly.

The road race will be around three hours long and unlike the majority of sports, there is no opportunity to take a break or be subbed on or off.

Riders will have to look after themselves and concentrate on hydration both in the events and leading up to them.

Ideally athletes should acclimatise for seven to 10 days in such conditions, but logistically this simply isn't possible.

The riders will arrive in Rhodes on the evening of 27 July, with the first race four days later.

Leading up to the games the team will be taking part in the usual Guernsey races but will also be concentrating on harder ones in France and the UK.

Horton and Le Tissier also plan to race in Belgium prior to the Games. Primary events will be the divisional road-race championships in the South of England on 3 June and the inter-insular road race a fortnight later.