Both the men’s and women’s course records fell as Hayley Simmonds and Simon Mcnamara powered their way to victories in the Brighton Mitre CC hilly 25-mile time trial in West Sussex on Easter Monday.

Multiple national champion and record holder Hayley Simmonds, the 30-year-old AeroCoach rider from Cambridgeshire, clocked 1-02-06 to take eighth spot overall and reduce the 19-year-old women’s course record by an impressive 9-42.

Her time was more than ten minutes quicker than second-placed woman Gemma Freeman (Brighton Tri Club), while Emma Craddock (South Downs Bikes) was third.

44-year-old Simon McNamara, the South Downs Bikes rider from Henfield in West Sussex, clocked 56-27 to slice 51 seconds from Pete Tadros’s eight-year-old record.

McNamara’s time was 49 seconds quicker than runner-up Pat Wright (Paceline RT) who also broke Tadros’s old record, albeit after McNamara. Third spot went to Howard Bayley (Blazing Saddles) who was 3-13 behind McNamara.

McNamara also led South Downs Bikes to the team award with Stuart Bettis and Emma Craddock making up the winning trio who had a combined time of 3-11-21.

The event included a road bikes category which attracted 18 riders, thereby boosting the overall number of riders to 59 – the third largest field Brighton Mitre CC have seen in this event’s 28-year history.

Neil Harrigan (Gravesend CC) was quickest on a road bike with 1-01-30, giving him the win over Mark Day (URDT) by 54 seconds, while Richard Cartland (South Downs Bikes) – who had won this category in Saturday’s 10-mile hilly, had to settle for third this time with 1-03-58.

Karen McGrath (Worthing Excelsior CC) was quickest woman on a road bike with 1-19-13.

The GS/999 course is a challenging hilly on roads to the north west of Brighton. It starts north of the A23 and heads up to Poynings before turning left through Fulking and on to Upper Beeding, where they head south on the A283 to the Shoreham bypass.

From there they turn and head back up, but this time continue up to Henfield, where they turn right through Woodmancote and back down to the finish point near the start point.

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

Results:

1           Simon McNamara            South Downs Bikes                          56           27

2              Pat Wright                           Paceline RT                                         57           16

3              Howard Bayley                  Blazing Saddles                                 59           40

4              Steve Kane                         Team ASL                            1              0              29

5              Dan Pullen                          N + ! – Lindfield Coffee  1              0              39

6              Stuart Bettis                       South Downs Bikes          1              1              13

7              Pete Tadros                        Trainsharp                           1              1              29

8              Hayley Simmonds            Aerocoach                          1              2              06

9              John McGrath                    Worthing Excelsior CC    1              2              25

10           Steve Dennis                      East Grinstead CC             1              3              29

Team – South Downs Bikes (Simon McNamara, Stuart Bettis, + Emma Craddock 1  13  41)  3  11  21

Woman – Hayley Simmonds 

ROAD BIKES’ “10”:

1           Neil Harrigan                      Gravesend CC                    1              1              30

2              Mark Day                             URDT                                     1              3              24

3              Richard Cartland               South Downs Bikes          1              3              58

4              Dave Pollard                       In-Gear                                1              4              08

5              Theo Tadros                       Trainsharp                           1              5              00

6              Marc Clothier                     South Downs Bikes          1              5              14

7              David Pena                         Blazing Saddles                 1              5              46

8              John Marinko                     Brighton Mitre CC            1              10           25

9              Justin Webb                       Virtual CC                            1              12           06

10           Jim Whitelegg                    Brighton Phoenix             1              12           49

Woman – Karen McGrath       Worthing Excelsior CC    1              19           13