Cycling-More wins for Rose and VCM |01 August 2005

After winning the Saturday July 23 120-km circuit race sponsored by Mohan Shopping Centre in a sprint finish, Nelson Rose again sprinted to the finish line of  Saturday’s (July 30) 100.1-km El’s Products-sponsored road race for his second consecutive individual win. He clocked 3 hours 07 minutes 11 seconds (3h07:11), the same time as teammate Bertrand Lesperance who finished second.

St Francis’ Alex Savy, who is encountering mechanical problems with his bike like many other cyclists, again decided not to force a sprint to avoid aggravating the already unstable condition of his bike. His time was 3h07:13.

Vélo Club de Mahé finished as the best team. Their first three cyclists to cross the finish line combined for 9h23.31. St Francis finished as runners-up with 9h23:42 and PLS Riders were third with 9h23:52.

Sunday morning, Rose joined Vélo Club de Mahé’s teammates Lesperance and Roy ‘Pantani’ Mougal to win the 34-km team time-trial in 51:07.810. This is Vélo Club de Mahé’s second team time-trial win after collecting victory in the first team time-trial race of the season of a distance of 51.3 kilometres on Sunday July 3.

Second place went to the PLS Riders trio of Brian Sinon, Francis Louis and Roniel Fanny with a time of 56:14.730. The Cadet team of young riders France Anacoura, Edouard Pothin and Uriy Farabeau finished third in 56:49.390.

It is to note that St Francis had only two cyclists – Alex Savy and Ricky Rosalie – for Sunday morning’s race and their time was not credited because a team must have at least three riders for a team time-trial.

After this weekend’s races, Rose has taken over at the top of the classification table with 530 points, relegating former leader Fanny of PLS Riders into second place with 509 points.

Vélo Club de Mahé’s Bertrand Lablache is third with 454 points, St Francis’ Alex Savy fourth with 452 points, PLS Riders’ Francis Louis fifth with 440 points, Vélo Club de Mahé’s Leeroy Labiche sixth with 397 points, St Francis’ Ricky Rosalie seventh with 276 points, PLS Riders’ Brain Sinon eighth with 241 points, Vélo Club de Mahé’s Roy Mougal ninth with 238 points and St Francis’ Jean-Pierre Low-Hong 10th with 233 points.

Speaking to Sports Nation Sunday morning, 22-year-old Rose said:
“I’ve been training hard of late in preparation for the Tour des Seychelles. I’m happy with my progress and I feel that my level is getting to where I want it to be. My aim is to get a good position in this year’s edition of the Tour.”

Meanwhile, in Saturday’s 60.7-km road race reserved for cadet riders, France Anacoura collected his 14th individual win in a time of 1h49:16.

Second to unbeatable Anacoura was Edouard Pothin in 1h56:38 and third place was occupied by Leslie Siméon in 2h01:38.

G. G.