Defending champions Joanna Patterson and Chris Fennell return to ride the 2022 National 100-Mile Championships in Cumbria on Sunday, but both will face a tough challenge from their rivals.

Patterson (Wahoo Endurance Zone p/b Le Col) clocked 3-42-35 on her way to last year’s 100-mile title on a faster course than this year’s L10010 between Keswick and Cockermouth, where she will be trying to hold off newly-crowned National 50-Mile Championship winner Kate Allan (Team Bottrill) among others.

Meanwhile, Fennell’s challengers include Jake Sargent (FTP Fulfil the Potential RT) - although last year’s runner-up Adam Duggleby (Chapeau! Vive le Velo) has had to pull out of the event because of Covid.

Team Bottrill have Phil Williams and Tom Hutchinson in the field, and both are something of an unknown quantity. Fourth in last season’s National 100, Williams’ only open ride this season was his win at the National Road Bike Championships.

And Hutchinson was sixth in last year’s National 100, but is the second fastest rider ever over 100 miles having ridden an impressive 3-14-50 in the Burton and District CA event last year.

While Fennell (The Independent Pedaler-Nopinz) will be aiming to add the 100-mile crown to the National 25, 50 and Circuit Championship titles he has already secured this season, he may not have it all his own way.

Similarly, the women’s National 100-Mile Championship is far from being a two-horse race, with National Circuit Champion Jennifer George (The Independent Pedaler-Nopinz) aiming to improve on the third place she had to settle for at the National 25 and 50 this season.

Patterson’s team-mate Lizi Brooke (Wahoo Endurance Zone) set her personal best on this same course last year, and if she can turn in a similar performance she may well challenge Patterson for the title.

Elsewhere after setting a new personal best at the Finsbury Park CC 50 last weekend, Chris McNamara (Nuun-Sigma Sport) is last man off and pre-race favourite at the a3crg 50-miler at Petersfield in Hampshire.

He is expected to be challenged there by Paul Burton (Paceline RT) and Matthew Smith (Team TMC), while Lisa Davis (Drag2zero) is the pick of the women according to national rankings system Spindata.

Also over 50 miles in the Leicester Forest CC event at Seagrave in Leicestershire on Sunday, where Rose Race Team’s Jack Levick is expected to be fastest by quite some margin from the rest of the field.

Near Kingston Bagpuize it’s the Oxonian CC 50, with John Mulvey (UpShift Nutrition Race Team) and Anthony Turner (Mickey Cranks CC) the fastest two on Spindata. Of the women Emma O’Toole (Nopinz Motip RT) is the pick of the bunch.

Other events this weekend include the Cleveland Wheelers sporting 17.6-mile event on a picturesque circuit near Stokesley in North Yorkshire. And further north it’s the Derwentside CC 9.9-mile event near Edmundbyers, skirting round the Derwent Reservoir where Lewis Timmins (Vector Racing) and Sarah Wilkinson (Blaydon CC) are expected to post the fastest times.

Saturday’s time trials include the Ross-on-Wye CC 10 in South Wales which includes a road bike category, as well as the Bossard Wheelers charity 10 at Husborne Crawley. Surplus funds from the event will go to Little Bleeders, the charity that supports young people with blood disorders that was set up by pro rider and haemophiliac Alex Dowsett.

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