News & Features

Prolific time trial champion Chris Fennell (The Independent Pedaler-Nopinz) added the National Closed Circuit Championship to his palmares with victory at the Thruxton Motor Circuit in Hampshire on Sunday.

Second last year, Fennell went one better to add to his growing list of 2021 titles. His time of 21-34 gave him the win by 52 seconds from Tom Ward (AeroLab Ward Wheelz), with Ollie Hucks (Nopinz Motip) third.

Meanwhile, the women’s title went to Leah Dixon (Wales Racing Academy), who topped a podium which was separated by just one second in a close women’s event. She clocked 24-40 for the 11.7-mile course, while joint runners-up were Anna Morris (AeroLab Ward Wheelz) and Alex Clay (The Independent Pedaler) who both completed the course in 24-41.

“I was really pleased with my ride, I had no problems and managed to stick to my power targets,” said Fennell.

And Dixon added: “I’m really happy to win. I’m still a relative novice to time trialling and knew it was a strong field so I was really nervous.”

See the event listing for a full report from the National Closed Circuit Championships.

In hill-climbing, Tom Bell (High North Performance) put his name forward for this year’s National Championships in three weeks time by winning three events over two days last weekend.

The Yorkshireman set an impressive new men’s course record on his way to victory in the Rutland CC climb of Mam Nick on Saturday where he knocked 26 seconds off the old course record – held by reigning national champion and his rival for this year’s event, Andrew Feather.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Richardson (Brother UK) broke the women’s course record for Mam Nick too.

Bell them went on to win overall in the Otley CC two-stage event in West Yorkshire, having lost out to Feather in stage one but pulled enough out on his way to victory in stage two to beat him overall.

Doing the double down south, Harvey Weinberger (AS Test Team) won both the Catford CC climb of Yorks Hill on Sunday morning and the afternoon’s Bec CC event on White Lane, Titsey.

His time of 1-55.04 for Yorks Hill gave him the win by around one second from Calum Brown (Lifting Gear Products), while Madeleine Heywood (Team Watto) clocked 2-39.09 to win the women’s prize by around 17 seconds from junior Sannah Zaman (Bigfoot CC).

Weinberger clocked 1-45.5 for the Bec climb a few hours later which gave him the win by 1.2 seconds from former national champion Adam Kenway (Brother UK), while Heywood was again quickest of the women in 2-21.1, around 30 seconds faster than runner-up Rachel Dumbrell (CC London).

With the road closed for roadworks annual maintenance, the Snake Pass was used by Glossop Kinder Velo for their annual hill-climb in Derbyshire, and Ed Laverack (Backpedal) made up for his second place in Saturday’s Rutland CC climb by taking the win in Sunday’s event.

His time of 11-47.2 was impressive and gave him the win by 35 seconds from Tim Podlogar (Stolen Goat RT) with the quickest female being Sophie Yarwood (Macclesfield Wheelers) in 16-28.5.

Team Kirkley Cycles hosted an event on a new climb, using the 2.5-mile Muggleswick Common climb in County Durham for Sunday’s event.

Muckle CC claimed a 1-2-3 for the event, with Matty Smith clocking 9-20.3 to win from team-mate John Bowman who was just 0.1 seconds back, while veteran Colin Atkinson was third, another five seconds back.

Hannah Farran (Team Boompods) was quickest female in 11-09.0 which was around nine seconds better than Sarah Wilkinson (Blaydon CC) in second.

Matlock CC’s Gregg Booker was celebrating victory at the Tickhill Velo climb of Bib Lane in Brookhouse, a short 0.3-mile climb which he covered in 1-07.7 to win by 2.3 seconds from Richard Lucas (Mapperley CC).

Emilie Verroken (Lifting Gear Products-Cycles in Motion) was quickest female in 1-32.9.

Solihull CC’s David Fellows continued his preparations for the national championships with victory in the Bolsover and District CC climb on Carr Lane, Palterton, on Sunday.

He covered the 1475-metre climb in 3-08.69 to win by just a fraction of a second from Leon Wright (Race Hub), while Tim Podlogar (Stolen Goat) was third. The promoting club’s Nicola Pettit was quickest female in 5-20.

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