PAUL JACKSON completed an impressive solo victory around six laps of the Reservoir circuit.
Jackson was in the second group off [group three] and on the second lap had dropped all of his fellow group members and was fast closing in on sole group four rider Paul O’Reilly.
Once past him, Jackson eventually finished five minutes ahead of group two riders Leon Ogier, Philip Touzeau and Grant Chalmers.
With numbers down on usual, due to many of the top riders away in the UK racing, and the handicap format, there were chances for riders who do not usually feature at the top of results sheets to shine.
O’Reilly set off with a healthy lead over the chasing groups.
Group three were off at 11 minutes with Jackson (pictured), Paul and Gary Wallbridge and Graham Le Maitre.
The next batch were set off at 18 minutes and the group featured eight riders – by far the biggest group of the day.
Group one, which featured Tony Bleasdale and Matt Osborn, were waiting to start the race when O’Reilly came through to complete his first lap.
With all the riders out on the course it was clear the latter starting groups would have to work extremely hard if they were to catch the early leaders.
Jackson dropped most of his group with only Gary Wallbridge hanging on until the end of the second lap when he too fell away from the strong-riding Jackson.
Group two had also splintered with Ogier, Touzeau, Ian Scholes and Chalmers dropping the remaining riders.
Osborn and Bleasdale decided that they were not going to be in the mix at the end of the race and decided to give up the chase retiring after two laps.
Entering the final few laps Jackson had caught O’Reilly and was leading the race.
The chasing pack was down to just a trio as an attack from Ogier resulted in Scholes losing touch.
As they entered the final lap, the gap to Jackson was only down to a little over five minutes and that was maintained all the way to the finish when Jackson crossed the line triumphant celebrating his first road race victory.
Touzeau, Chalmers and Ogier battled it out for second with Ogier taking the sprint by a metre.
O’Reilly crossed the line to take fifth following a very lonely race on his own.
Paul Wallbridge took sixth followed by Scholes, Le Maitre, Gary Wallbridge, Le Page, Ann Bowditch and Tim Holmes.
While the senior race was under way, three of the under-14s raced around the same course in a handicap time trial event.
With the times worked out Rory Chamberlain took the win in 20-34 ahead of Will Falla, 20-54, and Jack English, 21-08.Guernsey Velo Club: Handicap road race around six laps of the reservoir circuit
Article posted on 16th September, 2009 - 2.29pm
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