Sister isle to get behind our star rider

TOBYN HORTON will find himself in a very unusual situation this weekend.

He should find the people of Jersey cheering him on as the only Channel islander in the massive peleton as the Tour de Bretagne hits the sister isle for the first two stages of a week-long event.

The 23-year-old earlier this year became the Channel Islands' first professional cyclist after signing for the Anglo-Swedish outfit Team Sprocket Pro Cycling.

Managed by Wales-based Swede Magnus Backstedt – a stage winner in the 1998 Tour de France – the team has been in existence only since last year but this weekend they will battle it out against 21 other teams in the first stage of Le Tour de Bretagne here in Jersey.

And at the heart of that six-man team, which is made up of riders from Australia, Sweden, the USA and Great Britain, will be Horton, the former mountain biker now part-way through his first season with Team Sprocket as a professional road cyclist and preparing for a historic race on home soil – well, sort of.

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