Shaw smashes McGregor's 25 record on weekend of fast times

Julia Shaw, women's winner, British National 25-mile time trial 2011

Julia Shaw's incredible new women's 25-mile record set the tone for a weekend of incredible performances against the watch.

Shaw broke a 15-year-old time as she posted a 50-01 in the Merthyr CC 25, while new benchmarks were set in CC Breckland's 12-hour race and the 25-mile team discipline.

On the R25/3 course, Shaw (www.drag2zero.com) beat Yvonne McGregor's previous fastest time of 51-50, a feat that has stood since 1996.

She had previously set a 51-08 here, but due to timing issues that time did not stand.

"I knew I was in better form than I was on that day," Shaw told Cycling Weekly, "but you never know how you'll do until you get out on the course."

Unstoppable: Shaw's incredible 2011 form shows no sign of slowing

Wendy Houvenaghel (Bike Chain Ricci) was also riding, and Shaw admits this motivated her further.

"I was expecting it to be close with Wendy, and as she set off first there was a chance that she could set a new record and I may have only beaten the old time."

Houvenaghel did break McGregor's time, setting a 50-18, before that was eclipsed by Shaw.

"Someone just needed a good day with reasonable conditions on that course to beat the old record; sometimes it just takes a while for that to come round," she added.

More records tumble

Jeff Jones (Chippenham & District Wheelers) clocked 305.69 miles in Sunday's CC Breckland 12-hour TT, considerably further than Andy Wilkinson's 2009 record of 302.467m. Andy Bason (Team Pedal Revolution) also eclipsed Wilkinson's distance, riding 302.75m to win the RTTC National 12-hour race that took place on the same day.

The third record to be broken was the 25-mile team time, as Rudy Project series leader Matt Bottrill and i-ride.co.uk team mates Scott Povey and Richard Bradley set a cumulative time of 2-27-55. This beat the old marker of 2-28-23 set six years ago by the API-Metrow trio of Michael Hutchinson, Sam Barker and Danny Alexander.

Related links

British time trial round-up (August 13-14)

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Nick Bull is an NCTJ qualified journalist who has written for a range of titles, as well as being a freelance writer at Beat Media Group, which provides reports for the PA Media wire which is circulated to the likes of the BBC and Eurosport. His work at Cycling Weekly predominantly dealt with professional cycling, and he now holds a role as PR & Digital Manager at SweetSpot Group, which organises the Tour of Britain.