The day our ‘Cav’ turned on his own afterburners

Tuesday 27th December 2011, 2:29PM GMT.

The moment of victory: Tobyn Horton raises his arms and Guernsey has its fifth gold medal by early afternoon on day one in the Isle of Wight. 1151677

Remembering the day Guernsey ran and pedalled its way from the rest. Rob Batiste on day one at the Island Games

HAD Barry Hearn, the snooker impresario, been looking on, he may not have been impressed and instantly concluded that it was time for an overhaul of criterium racing in cycling.

Why waste an hour of everyone’s good time when you know the winner is going to race away over the climaxing five laps and render meaningless everything witnessed over the past 60 minutes?

Because that is just what happened on Sunday 26 June this year when Tobyn Horton ate up and spat out the challenge of his rivals around the tight streets of Ventnor.

Ultimately, he made it look so ridiculously easy, pedalling down much of the finishing straight with his arms in the air celebrating cycling’s third gold medal on day one of the Games.

To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.

View more: Tobyn Horton news.

1
TomManx

December 27, 2011 at 2:45 pm

Let’s face it, if the real Cav had done what he is perfectly entitled to do and competed for the Isle of Mann, then Tobyn Horton could have used all the after burners he liked and still would have been thrashed by Cavendish who would have rendered his challenge meaningless.

Report abuse
2
Terry Langlois

December 28, 2011 at 10:45 am

TomManx – no-one (least of all Tobyn) is saying that he would beat the current World Champion in a head to head sprint. But the article merely celebrates a fantastic moment for Island sport, when Tobyn showed his class to comfortably beat all of those who DID compete on the day – which is all that any sportsman can do.

What’s your point? That any sporting achievement is worthless unless the World Champion is competing and is beaten? That is plainly ridiculous.

Maybe you’re just a little sore that the great Isle of Man production line of cycling talent was put in the shadow by the boys and girls from Guernsey at the Island Games?

Report abuse