Leon Wright (Race Hub) secured his first victory of this season’s Knight Composites Classic Time Trial Series, while Kelly Murphy (C2 Racing) wrapped up the overall series victory at round five, promoted by the Border City Wheelers in Cumbria.

The Circuit of Greystoke Forest saw the men cover two laps of the 14-mile course, while other categories took in one lap of the L143 course to the west of Penrith.

Wright, 36 and from Leicester, had a previous best of fourth in the last round, but took victory after a powerful performance in round five, where he used his strong climbing ability to master the lumpy course.

He clocked 1-08-20 to take victory by exactly one minute from round four winner and joint series leader Dean Robson (Northover VT) while Richard Bickley (Border City Wheelers) was  third, another 39 seconds off the pace.

“I was pushing hard on the climbs, and the descents were quite technical so I was just trying to make up time,” said Wright.

“I knew that my team-mate Pete Nicholls had done a 32-minute lap last year so I thought that somewhere around a 1-04 or 1-05 would be good enough to win it, but the wind played quite a big part today.

“I had a bit of a moment with a tractor just after the start which held me up a bit, but after that I really put the hammer down to try and make time up on the first climb. I’m built for climbs so they tend to go in my favour.”

Kelly Murphy, the 28-year-old C2 Racing rider from Birmingham, covered one lap of the course in 35-02 to give her a second consecutive series win. She was 2-32 ahead of second-placed Jessica Rhodes-Jones (Beacon Roads CC), while Aero Coach rider Victoria Smith was another 23 seconds down in third.

The win was enough to secure the overall series win for Murphy, who is now on 237 points, with second-placed Rhodes-Jones only capable of getting a maximum 236.

“It’s great to get another win, and I’m really happy to win the series overall,” said Murphy. “It was a fairly lumpy and technical course like the last round, so I just had to ride it hard.

“I rode this course two years ago when it was wet. It was dry and faster today, and I went around two and a half minutes quicker.

“I recce’d the course the day before and it was really windy, although it had calmed down and wasn’t too bad on the day.”

Overall winner of the veteran women’s category, Jackie Field (CC Ashwell) is third in the women’s category having placed fourth on the day.

Adam Jarps (Team Bottrill-Vanguard) has won the junior series with another victory, while Bury Clarion’s Francis Woodcock moves up to second. Jarps clocked 34-27, while Woodcock was 1-47 slower.

And in the veterans category GS Metro’s Ben Lane took the win, covering the course in 35-56 to win by 45 seconds from Team Swift’s Peter Greenwood.

The series reaches its finale at round six on June 9, which doubles up as the National Circuit Championship which has attracted many professional riders.

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

* A full gallery of images from this event by Kimroy photography is available here