Howard Bayley stormed to a decisive victory as Karen McGrath found herself top of the pile in the women’s category in the Sussex Cycling Association’s 30-mile open time trial on Sunday morning.

Bayley (Blazing Saddles) broke a run of five events without victory as he claimed top spot in commanding fashion on the undulating G30/91 course in West Sussex.

The 44-year-old from Littlehampton had five previous podium finishes before Sunday’s event with one of them a victory in a 50-mile event promoted by Sussex CA themselves.

This time around, Bayley clocked a winning time of 1-04-34 to finish exactly two minutes better than second place.

Second place went to Steve Dennis (East Grinstead CC) who adds a third podium to his record so far this year, his last came in his most recent outing where he finished second again to Bayley.

Dennis finished in 1-06-34 this time, 19 seconds ahead of third placed man Nik Allen (Worthing Excelsior CC) in 1-06-53.

Fastest woman on the day was Karen McGrath (Worthing Excelsior CC) with a time of 1-21-11.

In other categories, Mark Jones and Tony Reeves (GS Stella) set a new tandem course record with 1-07-00. Jones was a prolific winner of local events back in the 1990s including a victory in the Perf’s Pedal Race, while Reeves was third in the 2014 24-hour Championship.

Worthing Excelsior CC claimed the team prize with a cumulative time of 3-33-15 thanks to rides from their trio of Nik Allen, John McGrath and Huw Williams. They beat Brighton Mitre CC by over 35 minutes.

* All reports are copyright of Cycling Time Trials/Snowdon Sports. Not to be used without permission. This report by Jack Cudworth.

* A full gallery of images from this event by Dale Baldwin is available here

Results:

1. Howard Bayley (Blazing Saddles) 1:04.34

2. Steve Dennis (East Grinstead CC) 1:06.34

3. Nik Allen (Worthing Excelsior CC)           1:06.53

4. Kevin Plummer (South Downs Bikes)       1:08.18

5. Adrian Blacker (C + N Cycles RT)            1:08.32

6. Dave Pollard (In Gear)       1:09.50

7. James Stone (Brighton Excelsior CC)        1:10.59

8. John McGrath (Worthing Excelsior CC)    1:11.04

9. Antony Bee (Wigmore CC)            1:11.48

10. Tom Houghton (Brighton Excelsior CC) 1:12.50

Women: Karen McGrath (Worthing Excelsior CC)   1:21.11