Boardman to the fore in forest

Cycling

Chris Boardman made a winning return to racing in yesterday's Merseyside Wheelers' invitation time trial in a Cheshire forest, writes Robin Nicholl.

Boardman, in his first event since breaking his ankle in five places and his wrist in the Tour de France prologue time trial three months ago, raced round the 28-mile Delamere Forest course in 1hr 4min 56sec - a record for the event.

"I know it sounds crazy but the crash was one of the best things to happen," he said. "Otherwise I would have ploughed on through all the work. It has been five very intensive years. There was the Olympic build- up, then the Olympics, the world hour record, my first professional year, which was very traumatic, then the Tour as team leader. Everything was going a little too fast and I was feeling out of my depth."

Boardman had considered the race to be only a run out. "I just want to get round," he said before beating Stuart Dangerfield, the national time trial champion, by 1min 25sec, with Chris Newton, the Commonwealth Games silver medal-winner, a further 33 seconds adrift in third place.

Boardman, who rides for the leading French professional team GAN, was using his local event as preparation for the Paris-Bourges road race on Thursday.

"I'm not fully fit yet, but my leg held up all right," the Olympic pursuit champion said after achieving his seventh victory in 10 years in the event.

n Britain's Matthew Stephens finished eighth in the amateur road race at the World Championships in Duitama, Colombia, after suffering a puncture while leading. He finished 4min 26sec behind the Dutch winner Danny Nelissen in 4hr 52min 39sec. Stephens' achievement earned Britain five places in the road race at next year's Olympics in Atlanta.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 24