Emma Lewis and Marcin Bialoblocki were crowned winners at the national Closed Circuit Championships at the Thruxton motor racing circuit in Hampshire on Sunday.

27-year-old Lewis from Herne Bay in Kent, who rides for The Independent Pedaler, clocked 24.46 for the 11.7-mile course, which took in five laps of the motor racing circuit.

That time was good enough for the win by 1-19 from Vicky Gill (DRAG2ZERO) while three seconds further back in third was Emily Meakin, the Fusion RT Veloperformance rider who had never been on a time trial bike until the beginning of the season.

The victory for Lewis was her third consecutive victory in the national Closed Circuit Championship – although she had to share the title last year with Rachael Elliott.

The 2018 titles comes after another successful year which has seen Lewis finish second in the National 25 and National 50, as well as riding several high profile road races.

Bridgwater-based Polish ace Bialoblocki (NOPINZ) clocked an impressive 22-03 for the course, giving him the win in the men’s event by 27 seconds from Chris Fennell (The independent Pedaler), while Gary Chambers (NOPINZ) took third, another 12 seconds back.

“I was very pleased,” said Bialoblocki. “It was a good day with good weather and not much wind. It was picking up a little bit late on, but not too much.

“I’ve been interval training in preparation for this for the last few weeks, and my condition was good. I’ve been doing intervals of eight or ten minutes, short sharp efforts.

“I didn’t think about the competition, I just thought about my effort and concentrate on being the best I can be.”

And fastest female Lewis said afterwards: “The conditions were really good this year. After wind and rain the last couple of years it was great to get near-perfect conditions this time.

“It was quite misty when I went off. After one lap my visor was misting up because I had warmed up inside.

“The conditions were much faster this year, but on top of that I’m now sponsored by The Independent Pedaler who have been very supportive, and it’s great to have a beautiful bespoke bike that feels so good.

“I’m lucky to have a country park near me in Deal which is very similar to Thruxton, so I’ve been able to prepare for this with intervals and short bursts of effort. This is my sort of course because it’s flat and hard and fast, had there been hills on it, the result might’ve been different.

“It has been a very long season for me because I’ve done time trials and road races too. I had three weeks to recover in time for this and sharpen up, but now I’m going to go and eat pizza and chocolate and enjoy the winter!”

Meanwhile, the junior titles at the National Closed Circuit Championships went to Adam Jarps (Team Bottrill-Vanguard) and Caitlin Peters (i-Team CC).

Jarps, 18 and from Newton Aycliffe, clocked 24-10 to improve on third spot in last year’s event. His time was 12 seconds better than runner-up Thomas Day (Poole Wheelers).

And Peters, 17 and from Fareham, successfully defended her winning performance in the 2017 event with a time of 27-45, which gave her the win by 56 seconds from Elizabeth Marvelly (Liv AWOL).

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