News & Features

The Ribble Pro Cycling trio of Dan Bigham, Simon Wilson and John Archibald were fastest male team, while The Independent Pedaler team of Emma Lewis, Emily Meakin and Joscelin Lowden were women’s winners at the National Team Time Trial Championship in Cheshire on Sunday.

2017 winners Bigham and Wilson were joined by Archibald this time, and they powered to an apparent easy win in 57-43 for the 30.9-mile course near Cranage, winning by around three and a half minutes from the Team Bottrill trio.

Also winning by around three minutes was the Team Independent Pedaler female trio of Joscelin Lowden, Emily Meakin and Emma Lewis. Their time of 1-05-47 was 3-01 quicker than runners-up Storey racing who, alongside Sarah Storey, featured 17-year-old Elynor Backstedt and 14-year-old Zoe Backstedt.

“Our plan was just to go full gas and see where we got. We executed it as well as we could’ve expected,” said Bigham afterwards.

Meanwhile, Lowden said: “Emily and Emma are really strong and we ride together a lot so I’m quite happy on their wheels and we work well together.”

Elsewhere, Chris Smart (GTR-Return to Life) added another good win to his growing list of 2019 victories, proving fastest in the VC Glasgow South 10-mile time trial near Newton Mearns on Saturday.

His time of 20-55 was six seconds quicker than runner-up Alex Macrea (Ciclotel Travel), while the fastest female was Alexandra Michnowicz (Glasgow Green CC) with 27-08.

In Essex the Chelmer CC 25 was won by Paul Hart (Southend Wheelers) with 54-16, while the promoting club’s David Harding was 1-45 behind in second and his team-mate Lauren Kirchel set a new women’s course record by more than four minutes with a winning time of 1-01-58.

In Berkshire, Gareth Williams (Twickenham CC) proved fastest over the H10/17r near Kingston Bagpuize. His time of 20-48 was five seconds better than Robin Short (Performance Cycles), while Emma Wardell (Tri Training Harder) clocked 23-23 to take the women’s prize by 23 seconds from Linda Dewhurst (Team Milton Keynes).

Natasha Jarman and Nic Fennell were fastest male and female riders respectively at the De Laune CC 10 on Saturday. Jarman (Southborough & Dist CC) clocked 26-48 to win the women’s prize, while Thanet RC rider Fennell’s time of 20-38 was just seven seconds better than runner-up Kevin Tye.

Nic Fennell then went on to win the VTTA Kent 20km event, which was shortened because of roadworks near Challock.

He clocked 24-46 to win by 46 seconds from Jon Cockrill (Abellio SFA RT), while Susan Walbrook (Folkestone VC) was fastest female with 31-19.

And in East Sussex, trainSharp team-mates Howard Shaw and Sally Turner were fastest male and female respectively in the East Sussex CA 50 on Sunday.

Shaw covered the G50/90 near East Hoathly in 1-48-28 to win by 1-30 from Nick Dwyer (Lewes Wanderers CC), while Turner’s time of 2-03-23 was almost five minutes quicker than another trainSharp rider, Lisa Davis, in second.

* All reports are copyright of Cycling Time Trials/Snowdon Sports. Not to be used without permission.

* See the individual event listings for more detailed reports on these and other time trials.