Cycling-Mathieu triumphs in 17.1-km individual time-trial |27 July 2004

The 23-year-old hit the tape of the 17.1-km race in 22 minutes 39.04 seconds, almost two seconds faster than St Francis' Eric Van Hollebeke (24:34.78) who settled for the runner-up berth.

Third position went to another St Francis rider, iron-man Andy Rose with a time of 24:48.18.

Despite finishing with an impressive clocking, Mathieu came nowhere close to his record time of 22:12.96.

PLS Riders' Bertrand Lesperance continued to show his dominance in the Junior category, winning the race in 25:01.81 ahead of two Vélo Club de Mahé's cyclists – Marcus Belle (second in 27:06.25) and Jean-Pierre Low-Hong (third in 27:25.65).

The best cadet rider in Sunday's race was no other than up-and-coming Leroy Labiche who clocked 26:28.65, while Raoul Gomme, who has shown a lot of improvement this season, finished in the runner-up spot in 28:12.81. Andry Esparon was third in 28:16.09.

At the end of Sunday's race, PLS Riders emerged as the best overall team with 1h13:06, edging St Francis into second place with 1h15:32 ,while Vélo Club de Mahé were third with 1h 20:02.

The next race is a gruelling 124-km marathon on Saturday, starting at 1.30 p.m. at Roche Caïman.

C. J.