John Archibald led a one-two-three for his team as he won the first stage of the WattShop two-stage TT on his road bike, while Kelly Murphy (AWOL O’Shea Worx) was the women’s winner.

Archibald, aged 32, broke the 20-minute marker to take victory in a time of 19 minutes and 51 seconds on the resurfaced course.

The K48/10 saw competitors start near Weston in Staffordshire before heading out and back on the A51 before turning at the roundabout in Stone.

The course included some short climbs to break up competitors speed and Archibald snatched a slender victory as the first eight riders were separated by less than a minute.

Spindata had predicted a victory for Archibald in 18-22 but riding a road bike meant his time was somewhat slower.

“I planned to do the time trial event, but there had been some road surfacing a couple of days before where they had laid out a load of gravel,” said Archibald.

“As I live locally I had ridden it in the two days before the race and it was in really bad nick so I didn’t want to ride the time trial bike.

“As it turned out they organised road sweepers on the morning and they did a good job of it.

“I was happy enough and it was a good event. There were two kickers to it on each leg so it was a bit challenging, but no real technical elements to it.

“I had no idea how much time I had expected to lose using that over the time trial bike, it was a bit of a surprise going into the last few kilometres thinking that I might break 20 minutes and it gave me a bit of motivation.”

Archibald is targeting a host of the national championship this year including the 50 and 100-mile championships.

With the top eight riders all within a minute it was all to race for in Sunday’s event over 25 miles.

Scratch rider Dan Bigham (HUUB WattShop) punctured on the opening stage and then won the following day in 49-50.

After finishing fifth on the opening day just 33 seconds down Patrick Casey (Anexo Group Race Team) finished second over 25 miles in 54-27 to win the event overall in a combined time of 1-14-51.

The women’s event was also closely fought with reigning Irish National time trial champion Murphy taking victory with a strong ride of 21-20.

The 33-year-old, from Sutton Coldfield, also won the second round of the Merlin Cycles Classic Series earlier this season and finished just seven seconds off the course record.

Just 16 seconds back was Neah Evans (HUUB WattShop) who stopped the clock in 21-36, while quickest veteran on scratch Chris Murray (Army Cycling) finished third (23-37).

“It was a really fresh event from the guys at WattShop, it was really well run and everything was really dialled,” said Murphy.

“It was a really fun event, the two courses were sporting. On Saturday it was out and back to a roundabout but it was lumpy with a fresh road surface which had gravel stuff as well which made it really interesting.”

Murphy followed up her victory in the 10-mile event by also winning the following day’s 25-mile race resulting in overall victory.

Archibald was the clear winner of the road bike event finishing over a minute ahead of HUUB WattShop team-mates Jonny Wale in second (20-54) and Casper Von Folsach in third (20-58).

The women’s road bike event was won by Sarah Toms (Royal Air Force Cycling Association) who stopped the clock in 26-31 ahead of Clare Spencer (Newcastle Staffs Tri Club) in second (28-00).

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

Results:

Men:
1 John Archibald (HUUB WattShop) 19.51
2 Alex Pritchard (HUUB WattShop) 19.58
3 Thomas Brazier (HUUB WattShop) 20.09
4 Ben Lloyd (Fibrax Wrexham RC) 20.10
5 Patrick Casey  (Anexo Group Race Team) 20.24
6 James Lowden  (HUUB WattShop) 20.34

Junior: Patrick Casey (Anexo Group Race Team) 20.24

Women:
1 Kelly Murphy (AWOL O’Shea Worx) 21.20
2 Neah Evans (HUUB WattShop) 21.36
3 Chris Murray (Army Cycling) 23.37
4 Melissa Denman (Velo Bavarian) 24.24
5 Gail Lowe (Congleton CC – MyWindsock) 24.36
6 Kate Kirkland (Born To Bike - Bridgtown Cycles) 25.18

Road bikes:
1 John Archibald (HUUB WattShop) 19.51
2 Jonny Wale (HUUB WattShop) 20.54
3 Casper Von Folsach  (HUUB WattShop) 20.58
4 Alastair Ribbands (Congleton CC – MyWindsock) 21.50
5 Abdel Kader Allouni (Pocomotion Road Club) 24.14
6 Steve Price (VC Sevale Malvern) 28.26

Road bikes women:
1 Sarah Toms (Royal Air Force Cycling Association) 26.31
2 Clare Spencer (Newcastle (Staffs) Tri Club) 28.00