Cycling - Oreddy best Seychelles rider as Mauritius earns one-two-three finish |29 July 2019

Oreddy (left) finished as the best overall Seychellois with a time of 3h36:18 for 8th place

The Seychelles cycling team did not win any medals in the three events at the 10th Indian Ocean Islands Games in Mauritius.

The 132.4km road race was held on Saturday morning in Curepipe in rainy, windy and foggy conditions.

After not winning any medals in the team time trial and individual time trial events, the Seychelles team comprising Ahmad Arissol (captain) Christopher Gerry, Xerxes Larue, Denus Oredy, Jean-Yves Souyave were hopeful of winning a piece of silverware in the 132.4km road race held on Saturday.

The other Seychellois cyclist Dominic Arrisol could not take part as the regulations states that there must be only five cyclists on each team.

It was the Mauritian team who stole the show to win all the medals.

With no cyclists able to catch them as from the second lap, the Mauritian team were totally in control of the seven-lap race from Curepipe to Nouvelle France and they crossed the line together in 3 hours 23 minutes 28 seconds (3h23:28) with Alexandre Mayer winning the gold medal. The silver medal went to Dylan Redy and the bronze medal was won by Gregory Lagane.

Paul Rivière from Reunion was the first non-Mauritian to cross the finish line in sixth place in 3h30:22.

Seychelles’ young cyclist Oredy was in the first group as they tried to keep pace with the Mauritians who at the fourth lap had built a huge lead. But Oreddy only managed to finish as the best overall Seychellois with a time of 3h36:18 for 8th place.

“I tried hard to get my legs heat up for the race but it didn’t quite materialise as we had only two warm-up bikes for the five of us and this contributed to making the race very difficult for me in such bad weather. By the time my legs started to warm, the Mauritians who each had a warm-up bike, were well ahead in the race,” said Oredy who noted that he was not satisfied with his performance.

Christopher Gerry was the only cyclist to abandon the race due to a rear tyre burst on the last lap.

“I looked around and there was nobody to replace the tyre. I had no choice but to abandon the race,” Gerry said.

For his part, Seychelles team technical director Lucas George said he was very disappointed with the way the race was organised.

“I think the circuit had been well picked in favour of the Mauritians. It would never happened in this type of race for a country to occupy first to fifth positions. To add to that never in an Indian Ocean Islands Games would Reunion, knowing their tactics and their abilities to lead road race, let their opponents take the lead, especially leaving five cyclists on their own and not try to catch up with them,” said Mr Lucas.

He noted that there was some unfairness in choosing the terrain as it was not neutral to all riders.

Other than cyclists from Seychelles, Reunion and Mauritius, riders from Madagascar, Comoros and Mayotte also took part in the race.

Patrick Joubert in Mauritius