Josh Williams (Team Bottrill-HSS Hire) and Hayley Simmonds (Team WNT Pro Cycling) drew first blood as the Knight Composites Classic TT Series kicked off in Dorset on Sunday.

The pair were the fastest senior man and woman respectively over a 24-mile course near Wimborne, with Simmonds breaking the women’s course record with a time of 55.33 while Williams clocked an impressive 48.34.

Williams’ time gave him the win by 17 seconds from John Dewey (Team Bottrill), while Jack Rebours (Ceasarean CC Jersey) was third, another 36 seconds back.

And in the women’s category, Simmonds was almost exactly two minutes ahead of her nearest rival Elizabeth Banks (Sunsport Velo), while Becky Lewis (Mid-Shropshire Wheelers) was third, another six seconds back.

“It’s nice to get the win, and the record too,” said Simmonds, 26 and from Cambridge. “I didn’t know what the old record was but I knew the men’s record, so based on that I wanted to do a 55-minute ride, so I’m glad to have done that.

“It was pretty tough with the wind, and some of the roads are quite a bad surface, but it went well and was warmer than I expected.

“It’s not a course I know, but my in-laws live just up the road so we came down here on Friday and I rode the course so I got to know it a bit.”

Simmonds added that she is targeting the overall Series win, as most of the dates fit into her racing schedule with Team WNT.

Men’s winner Williams was similarly pleased with his performance.

“I’m very pleased with that ride, I wanted to come here and win it so it’s good to get the Series off to a winning start,” said the 25-year-old from Oswestry.

“I didn’t know the course at all beforehand,” said Williams, who travelled down to Dorset the day before the recce the course.

“It looked a bit lumpy and I don’t like hills that much,” he added. “The wind got up going out to the first turn, but it was behind us after that, and there was a bit of a headwind from the roundabout to the finish, but nothing too bad.

“I’m targeting the overall Series – I’ll be doing the first four rounds and hopefully I can get enough points to challenge for the overall. I might ride the fifth round too, but I’ll be missing the last round as I’m getting married the day before.”

In other categories, Jack Rebours (Caesarean CC Jersey) was the fastest espoir with 50.27 which was good enough for third overall.

Fastest of the veterans was Race Hub rider Peter Nicholls who covered the 24 miles in 52.28 to take the win by exactly one minute from Danny Axford (Arctic Tacx), with John Samways (Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers) third.

Verulam CC’s Adam Robertson was the pick of the juniors with a time of 54.20, giving him the win by 46 seconds from Zak Coleman (Team Pedal Revolution).

And first blood in the paracyclists category went to Rik Waddon (Para-T) with 1:02.09, some 11 minutes quicker than second-placed Liz Paul (London Dynamo).

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