BOTH Leamington cyclists Matt Clinton and Jack O’Neill impressed at the National 25-mile Time Trial Championships which were held in the Lake District on Sunday.
The duo were both hoping to improve on last year’s results of second and 57th respectively and this year the rain thankfully stayed away for all riders.
A total of 120 riders took part in the event and O’Neill was the first of the Leamington riders out of the blocks at number 15 aiming to beat his personal best time of 54.30.
The course prove to be a technical one with 14 roundabouts to negotiate on the out-and-back route.
And a strong ride from O’Neill saw him cross the finish line in 52.41 which saw him shave almost two minutes off last year’s time.
Clinton entered the course fifth from the end almost two hours after his Mike Vaughan Cycles team mate and he started strongly before accidentally riding off the course for a short period.
This cost Clinton around 30 seconds but once he was back on track Clinton was able to record the second fastest return lef of the day and crossed in a time of 49.03.
Once all the results were in it was declared that O’Neill had finished 34th, which was a big improvement from last year, but Clinton’s place on the podium was not meant to be as he finished 27 seconds off third place to finish fifth.
The event was won by Ryan Perry in a time of 48.04 and last year’s winner Matt Bottrill claimed runner-up.
The Mike Vaughan Cycles duo look forward to riding the Midland’s Time Trial Championships at Wolvey this weekend.
Elsewhere, fellow Mike Vaughan Cycles Team rider Liz Powell continued to build on her successful season in the Midlands by competing in two National events in two weekends.
The first event was the Veterans National 25-mile time trial held near Rhigos in South Wales on Sunday on what is considered to be one of the fastest courses in UK.
Despite the wet and windy weather conditions, Powell started completed the course in 56.50 which was a new personal best for the Warwickshire rider and enough to finish as the fastest woman.
On Saturday Powell was back in action at the popular CTT National 25 held near Saffron Walden.
The challenging and technical course proved a good test for all those competing with only one rider, the eventual winner, Hayley Simmonds squeezing under the hour.
Powell completed the course in one hour and five minutes which was enough to claim tenth overall.
