Alex Dowsett smashes course record

Team Sky pro Alex Dowsett set tongues wagging when he slashed around three and a half minutes off the course record in the Easterley RC hilly 26-mile event in Essex on Sunday.

The in-form 22-year-old clocked 52-49 for the E1/26a course at Ugley - just down the road from his home - to win by more than seven minutes and set people talking about a bid for the national 25-mile record.

With warm and mostly dry weather greeting riders across the country, there were a smattering of other course records being broken.

Team Raleigh's Richard Handley clocked 21-04 for the J2/3 course in the Manchester and District TTA 10-mile event at Goostrey, winning by 55 seconds from Preston Wheelers' vet John Morgan and setting a new mark for the well-used course.

And Joel Wainman  broke his own record for the C25/10 course in Lincolnshire, the Team Swift rider clocking 55-16 to win the Skegness Wheelers event at Candlesby in Lincolnshire.

Short of his own course record - but doing a good ride nevertheless - was Michael Hutchinson (In Gear-Trainsharp) who won the VTTA East Anglia open event with 51-21, just over three minutes quicker than Russell Hampton (Sigma Sport RT). Winner of the veterans event was 68-year-old Edmund Spurgeon (Colchester Rovers) with +16-57.