The converted triathlete led a heavy revision to the record books in Sunday’s outing at Fermain, which formed the second round of the Guernsey Velo Club’s Hill Climb Series.
He showed off his spectacular power-to-weight ratio in dropping the outright record on the especially severe climb to 1min. 45.4sec., fully 21sec. lower than it had been at the start of the morning.
This bodes well for his shot at Nick Despres’ highly respected record up ‘Valdees’, which has stood at 1-42.6 since 1991, in Sunday’s season finale.
‘I’m planning on trying to break it on Sunday,’ he said.
‘I’m definitely feeling more confident after yesterday’s hill climb, which really gave me an idea of where my power and fitness over that time and distance is at.
‘My main aim with Fermain was to use it as a recce for next weekend and really dial in my set-up and fuelling, and I think I have nailed that, so I just need to deliver the same next weekend.
‘Overall, I felt like I had a bit more I could have pushed up Fermain, so I’m hopeful I can produce the performance I have worked hard for over the last couple months and break the record.
‘It’s definitely not going to be easy – 1-42.6 is an incredibly fast time to say Nick would have done that on a steel, “fixie” bike, which is just incredible.’
Having turned plenty of heads in spring with an Easter Festival victory, and then won the individual inter-insular road race title in August, Le Cheminant will be feeling unstoppable if he does achieve that much-sought record.
‘I think it will give me quite a big mental boost and knowing that I can do what I really set myself, and then put me in a good position going into winter training and working towards Island Games 2027 and any other goals I plan to tick off on the way to that event,’ he added.
Before Le Cheminant blasted the record into new territory, U16 Zach Smith had just rewritten both the outright and junior marks with 1-54.4.
Having set the outright standard at 2-06.4 last year, fellow junior Charlie Tourtel finished just 0.5sec. off his previous mark.
Beyond finishing a fantastic fourth overall, promising U14 Freddie Martel came away with his own age-group mark of 2-09.9.
U12 Hugo Johnson’s 3-15.2 completed the haul of age-group records set.
Meanwhile, U16 Holly Smith claimed the female honours in 3-53.6.
Leading up to Sunday’s finale, the series continues with Rue des Valniquets – just above the Imperial Hotel – tomorrow evening.
