In the absence of Alan Cook, Ross Cycling Club's dominant rider over several years forced into early retirement through injury, the scene is set for Will Bevan to clean up this season. Overcoming his technical problems in the first race two weeks ago he made no mistakes on a blustery Old Gore course last Thursday evening to romp home well ahead of the field in 23 minutes and 28 seconds.

Windy conditions are always the enemy of any cyclist taking on a time trial race with last week's event proving the point. Riders literally flew to the five mile turn point with the wind at their backs. But the return journey into a strong headwind significantly slowed everyone as they struggled to keep a steady cadence to the finish. Not just confronted with the wind, junior rider Matt Fallon had severe technical difficulties just after the start.

Dad, Paul Fallon, had undertaken some rudimentary maintenance on Matt's bike which unfortunately resulted in Matt completing the majority of the race stuck in just one gear, this slowed him down considerably but did not stop him clocking a very impressive 29 minutes 10 seconds finishing time.

Fallon senior continues to show strong early season form with a second place finish in 26 minutes three seconds.

The next four finishers; Graham Carter, Paul Stephens, Max Suff and Mark Lavington continue to show how competitive the mid section of the field is with third to sixth place separated only by just over one minute. Newcomers Mike Dunsby, Nigel Skyrme and Mark Herriot battled well in the conditions but found the course considerably more taxing than their first outing at the relatively flatter Walford event.

In the ladies section Julie Suff took the honours ahead of Mary Middleton who, despite taking around 40 minutes to complete the race, still crossed the finish line with a big smile on her face.

This Thursday sees the club racing ten miles from Walford school and back starting at 7pm, spectators are welcome along with anyone that has a road bike in a decent condition wanting to enter the race.