The cyclists race past Gorey pier

HOLLAND’S Jetse Bol was the first rider home in yesterday’s first stage of the Tour de Bretagne, breaking away from a leading pack of 14 cyclists to cross the finishing line at Gorey.

After a grueling road race which saw Jonathan Thire come off on the Grouville Church bend early on in the race, only for the Big Mac team man to climb back onto his bike and then carry on before a shoulder injury told him it was time to call it a day, Team Sprocket’s Magnus Backstedt put into perspective how difficult this stage of the race had been.

A past stage winner of the Tour de France, Backstedt said: ‘It might not be as hard as climbing up 4,000 metres, but a lot of riders were caught out by how tough the roads were. The course is a constant stop-start; braking into corners; but I’m looking forward to the rest of the time in Jersey.’ Team Sprocket were just one of the teams who suffered punctures early on in the race – in their case three, while other teams had similar problems during a challenging course with roads going from wide to narrow then wide again.