John Archibald (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) came from behind to clinch his third national crown of the season in the men’s National Circuit Championship.

Archibald, aged 29, won the National Closed Circuit Championship last weekend but was pushed all the way on this occasion by Chris Fennell (The Independent Pedaler- Nopinz) before eventually winning by 21 seconds.

The National Circuit championships saw riders complete two laps of a 12.5-mile course starting on the A1303 heading west towards Cambridge.

Competitors then turned south east onto an unclassified road to Six Mile Bottom before turning north easterly onto the A1304 to complete a lap.

With little wind or technical features to challenge riders it was a test of strength on the course near Newmarket.

After the opening 12.5 miles lap Fennell had a nine-second lead over scratch rider Archibald.

After being told of the first lap split Archibald worked hard to overturn the deficit eventually winning in a time of 48 minutes and 50 seconds - an average speed of over 30.7 miles per hour.

Fennell had to settle for his third national second place finish this season eventually clocking 49-11.

An even closer battle took place for third between under-23 riders Travis Bramley (Plymouth Corinthian CC) and Sebastian Gerry (Aerolab Ward Wheelz).

Both riders shared their first ever national podium place clocking the same time of 50-50.

“It was good and to win by 20 seconds, I’m pretty happy with that,” said Archibald.

“It was pretty basic with not a lot of wind or technical aspects on the course. Not very often do I get time splits but with it being two laps of a circuit I found out I was nine seconds back after the first lap.

“That made it certainly tough on the second lap. If I didn’t know I might not have got it all out but it was also psychological thing knowing that you are down.

“I’m going to take some down-time now and rest and I’m waiting to find out what my plan will be next.”

Fastest veteran was Matthew Smith (Drag2Zero) down in eighth place overall in 51-34 ahead of second veteran Richard Todd (Onyx RT) clocking 52-11 while third in the category was Andy Proffitt (Artic Aircon RT) in 54-26.

* 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