Phil Williams and Tamsin Miller were crowned winners at the National Road Bike Time Trial Championships in Nottinghamshire on Sunday morning.
Williams, the 36-year-old Team Bottrill rider from Liverpool, was almost a minute quicker than his nearest rival in the men’s competition as he used his time trialling experience and knowledge of the course to good effect.
Meanwhile Miller, the 22-year-old from Taunton in Somerset who rides for Bianchi Hunt Morvelo, made a great start to only her second season of bike racing with victory in the women’s event by around two and a half minutes.
Williams clocked 52-34 to win by 57 seconds from Alex Pritchard (WattShop), while Ian Hope (Team Solo Vinci) was third, just five seconds further back.
“I was happy with my time, I don’t do many road bike time trials so I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Williams. “I’ve done a 50 on this course before so I knew a bit about what to expect.
“There are some long uphill drags so my plan was to go hard up them and ease off on the descents, but it was pretty windy. Not a block headwind more of a cross headwind from the east, but enough to make it difficult.
“It was a good event though, so I will look at doing some of the other road bike events this season and have a go if I can.”
Third in the BUCS 25 Championships last season in her first ever time trial, Miller showed great form by winning the women’s road bike title by a good margin from prolific time trial winner Alice Lethbridge (Drag2Zero), while third went to Banbury Star CC rider Naomi de Pennington.
“Being so close to a sub-hour ride is frustrating, but I’ve got to be happy with the win!” said Miller. “I had a good ride and felt OK. It was my first competition of the year, so it’s always good to start off with a win.
“I didn’t know much about the other riders, and I can’t control what they do anyway. My plan was just to turn up and do my best and I’m glad it was good enough.”
Meanwhile the junior winners were Jamie Bretton (Stonham Barks Park-SYRT) with 1-03-50 in the boy’s event, with the girls’ title going to Sophie Heighton (Ferryhill Wheelers) in 1-12-20.
* 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