Team bronze from women's bunch sprint
THE Guernsey women's team took their turn in the limelight yesterday with a thoroughly deserved bronze medal in the road race.
In the 77km event over four laps of the flat course based around Barlingo, the Guernsey quartet were rightly pleased with their day's work, even though they were just unable to add any individual medals to their team bronze as the race ended in a bunch sprint.
'It was quite hard to break up the peloton,' said Jo Watts.
'We tried a few things but nothing worked.
Karina Bowie reported that a small break of four riders formed briefly on the last lap, but it did not stick.
Watts added: 'It all came down to a sprint finish into a headwind and Bermuda have got really strong sprinters and the Isle of Man have too.'
Tara Ferguson, of the Isle of Man, won that sprint, ahead of Bermudian pair Zoenique Williams and Nicole Mitchell.
Another Isle of Man rider, Eleanor Davies, took fourth, with Watts the leading Sarnian in fifth.
In the following men's race, Guernsey riders were in the thick of the action throughout and had a presence at the head of the field deep into the race, but the strength of the teams from Saaremaa, the Faroes and the Isle of Man shone through over the six laps.
Simon Campbell was the top placed Sarnian in 16th, with Jack Hoskins and Matt Osborn also in the top 25, all on the same time.
Jack English and Ricky Moore did not finish.
