High winds crush hopes of fast TT times

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Hopes of the 25-mile competition record being broken on Sunday were dashed when strong winds and rain greeted riders to the superfast R25/3L course in Wales.

The course at Glynneath, West Glamorgan, is the place where David McCann set the current record of 45-54 in 2009 - and where Michael Hutchinson had to settle for second with 46-07.

Hutchinson won Sunday's event, but he had to settle for a relatively slow 47-47 because of the challenging conditions.

The event was split into two, with a total of 338 riders having entered in search of fast times. And such is the reputation of the course, that the cut-off time for entries was 57-44.

But almost half of the riders took one look at the weather conditions and decided against riding.

Hutchinson's time was 30 seconds faster than runner-up Matt Bottrill, who led I Ride to the team prize.

And fastest of the women was Lynne Taylor, the Born2Bike rider who clocked 58-59.

Elsewhere, London teenager Germain Burton (Team De Ver) was crowned the GHS National Schools Champion after a strong ride in the 10-mile event at Walton-on-the-Wolds near Loughborough on Saturday.

The 16-year-old clocked 21-15 to win the title, while second spot went to One and All Cycling's Jake Alderman, a 16-year-old from Falmouth in Cornwall who clocked 21-39.

15-year-old Oliver Wood (Aire Valley RT) was third, the 15-year-old from Wakefield going just four seconds slower. And the girls prize went to Alice Barnes, the Motorpoint Pro Cycling rider from Northamptonshire who covered the course in 23-37.

Lutterworth Cycle Centre rider Matt Sinclair won the AND Cycling Club's Lighthouse 25-mile event at Granby in Leicestershire, clocking 53-58 to hold off I Ride RT rival Scott Walker by just four seconds, while Planet X's Lee Tunnicliffe was third, another 16 seconds off the pace.

And over the same distance, Preston CC's Robin Brennan clocked 55-53 to win the ABC Centreville Ernie Saunders Memorial event in Cheshire.

Brennan held off the challenge of two Rhos on Sea CC riders Gareth Bowyer and Justin McInveen, who had to settle for the minor podium places.

Former national hill-climb champion James Dobbin (Adeo Cadence RT) secured a convincing victory in the Border City Wheelers hill-climb near Melmerby in Cumbria on Sunday.

He clocked 17-43.6 for the 5.3-mile Hartside climb, which gave him the win by more than 45 seconds from runner-up Jonathan Knox (Team Wallis CHH).

And in the day's other hill-climb, National Championship aspirant Tejvan Pettinger, the Sri Chinmoy CT rider from Oxford, won the Buxton CC event on the same J9/13 course which will stage the title race next month.

Pettinger clocked 13-49.3 for the 4.44-mile Long Hill climb at Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire, which was the fifth running of the Trevor Yeoman Memorial.

Velo Ecosse's George Atkins took second, 11 seconds off the pace.

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Snowdon Sports is a long-established independent sports news agency, which supplies editorial to a range of media outlets - such as Cycling Weekly - as well as sports governing bodies. Snowdon Sports often covers results at Cycling Time Trials events in the UK and has long been a source of information and imagery to Cycling Weekly.