Island's top riders in Sunday's fifth road race of the year at Southside, placing first overall in the 43-mile race.

Some 50 riders started the event in blustery, humid conditions and showed a degree of caution in the early stages of what was the longest race so far this year. A large pack stayed together on the demanding course in what would prove to be a tactical battle throughout.

Pre-race favourite and points series leader, Steve Millington, who has had a second and two firsts so far, was the first casualty when he suffered a puncture on the third lap. That left him spending the remaining 16 laps chasing down the lead pack.

Mike Lee, Jeff Payne and Kent Richardson fought hard to keep the field ahead of Millington, and with constant attacking whittled the initially large lead pack down to seven contenders.

In the final stages, Lee led out the group which included Melanie Claude, Payne, Richardson, Earl Godfrey and Dwyer Williams. But with 200 metres left the leaders were forced to pass a slower group of riders and in the confusion Henry made the most of the situation to burst through and snatch the win in 2:07.33 from former Olympian Godfrey.

Lee, Claude, Payne, Richardson and Williams were all credited with the same time.

In the Category Three race over the same distance, newcomer Martin Pettit was first in 2:17.25 with Karl Outerbridge 24 seconds behind. In the veterans category over 16 laps of the 2.5 mile course, Paulo Madeiros handed Vic Ball a rare defeat as they finished in 1:53.40 and 1:54.03 respectively after Ball suffered a puncture early in the race.

In the women's category there was another nailbiting finish between Wenda Godfrey and Jeanna Godfrey after they battled each other for almost two hours with Wenda again outsprinting her rival as both were timed in 1:54.03.

In one of the best races of the day, Matthew Herring in the 13-14 category produced another fine performance as he stayed up with the top riders for the first nine of his 13 laps on the way to winning his division in 1:32.01, some eight minutes ahead of Adam Petty in second.

Full results, see Scoreboard