Gibbard and Fishbourne dominant in South Wales
Michelle Fishbourne and Chris Gibbard forged impressive wins in the Port Talbot Wheelers 10-mile time trial in Neath Port Talbot on Saturday.
Gibbard (Bynea CC) was the only man under the 20-minute mark on Saturday, carving out a 37-second margin of victory after averaging over 30mph on the undulating roads of South Wales.
The 37-year-old from Swansea clocked 19-26, giving him his first win of the season ahead of CES Sport’s Chris Massey with 209-13. With seven victories to his name in 2018, this surely won’t be Gibbard’s last.
Massey ended the day in second place while Neil Poulton (Ogmore Valley Wheelers) was another 13 seconds adrift in 20-26 but comfortably his best finish in open events for some time and was fastest veteran on standard with +6-18.
In the women’s category Michelle Fishbourne (CES Sport) followed up a second-place finish at the end of April up with an impressive win in her second event of 2019.
Fishbourne clocked a time of 23-47, 1-14 better than second place and with four more events lined up in the coming weeks, Fishbourne will be hoping to add to an already good start to her 2019 campaign.
Hollie Labunsky (Port Talbot Wheelers CC) was second in 25-01 with Katherine Brace third in 26-32.
The event also featured the South Wales district qualifying for the 2019 CTT National Youth Championships in which Joshua Tarling and brother Finlay of Team Backstedt finished first and second respectively.
Other qualifiers for the championships were Morgan Lloyd, Euan Hawkins, Imogen Morris and Llyr Rees with Rhys Thomas, Noah Rees and Kieron Heuberger qualifying as part of the Gower Riders CC team.
* All reports are copyright of Cycling Time Trials/Snowdon Sports. Not to be used without permission. This report by Jack Cudworth.