Cycling-St Francis take team time-trial victory |04 May 2011

The last team to take the start of the race, St Francis, comprising Edward Pothin, Graham Bristol, Andy Rose and Ricky Rosalie, completed the distance in 1 hour 04 minutes 02 seconds (1h04:02).

“We are happy we won, but we made too many mistakes during the highly contested race,” said Pothin.

Second place went to the Cutrite team of Raoul Gomme, Richard Felix and Francis Louis in 1h05:26.

Although they finished with the fastest time of 1h03:13, the Strong Riders team of Hedson Mathieu and Brian Sinon did not qualify for the prizes as they were short of a rider to complete their team.

“We knew we would not get any reward because one of our teammates is out as his bicycle is being repaired, but we took part to test ourselves against the rest of the peloton,” said twice Indian Ocean Island Games individual time-trial gold medallist Mathieu.

For a team to feature in the final standings of a team time-trial, at least three of their riders have to cross the finish line together.

Saturday’s race started at Roche Tortue (opposite the Pointe Larue International Airport) and the cyclists pedalled to the Eden Island round-about and back to the starting line. They had to complete four laps under a scorching sun.

G. G.