Dawes survives a tricky moment

The Division One field sample the steeplechase at Foote’s Lane on the fifth stage of the Challenge. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0614309)

STEVE DAWES overcame a scare to continue his procession towards the All Terrain Challenge title.

The fifth of the seven-event series was changed from the usual 800 metres to a steeplechase, using the devil takes the hindmost system, whereby the person in last place at the end of each lap sprint is knocked out.

On the final lap, Dawes and Mark Mercier had a shootout, with Dawes easing to victory on the home straight. However, it was on the previous lap with Tristan ‘Tricky’ Robilliard still in the shake-up, that Dawes nearly came unstuck.

The pacemaker Robilliard started his sprint early, something that Dawes said ‘caught him totally off guard’.

Just when it seemed Dawes would have to settle for third, he pipped Robilliard to the line.

With the penultimate racer over the line becoming the pacemaker, Dawes used this to his advantage on a number of occasions, something which he believes was essential in the overall outcome.

‘It meant that I could run at an even pace, which is good, rather than having to worry about the sprint finish each time,’ he said.

With Dawes now leading Mercier by almost four minutes in the overall standings, it seems that today’s cliff run and tomorrow’s Herm race are mere formalities now.

However, despite acknowledging how close he is to the title, Dawes refuses to be complacent.

‘Touch wood, I should win it now.

‘But anything can happen and has happened in the past on the cliffs, so I can’t assume anything just yet,’ he said.

The race did see some surprises, with Dave Dyke and Paul Ingrouille being the second and third to be knocked out respectively. Before the race, they were in third and fourth positions.

The only woman in the top division, Martine Scholes, was the first racer to be eliminated in the ‘devil’ race, but the news for the other women in the competition was generally very good.

Afforded a sizeable handicap advantage Sarah Mercier, Jo Bell and Tina Coutanche won the Divisions Two, Three and Four races respectively, all staged over 1,000 metres of the track.

Article posted on 31st July, 2008 - 2.29pm

Post a Comment on this Article

Your email address is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

Name *

Email address *

Comment

Disclaimer: This comment area is moderated by the Guernsey Press, which aims to create a valuable forum for the expression of views by all who have an interest in Guernsey. Contributors are expected to respect the opinions of others and all submissions may be edited. In particular, our policy is not to allow defamatory, gratuitously offensive, factually inaccurate or self-promotional statements to be posted. The moderators will not enter into e-mail correspondence about the editing of individual submissions.

Your Shout: View all recent comments. More detail on the comment icons.

If you wish to make a comment about this website, please use our feedback form.