ULSTERMAN Michael Hutchinson (Team MDT Giant) comfortably overcame the challenge of Preston's Gethin Butler to win Sunday's Booths Grand Prix/Rudy Project Series time trial around Windermere.

The pony-tailed flier covered the testing 25 miles circuit taking in Waterhead, Hawkshead and Newby Bridge in a rapid 58 mins 45 seconds with Butler a minute slower on 59-49. Scotsman Mark Atkinson (Team Velo Ecosse) was third with 1-00-11, just edging multi-national champion Kevin Dawson (Life Repair RT) by five seconds. Barry Charly of Stourbridge CC was fifth with 1-00-56.

Afterwards, Hutchinson commented that the weather was warmer than for last year's event and that seemed to have brought plenty of cars onto the roads. "But you're always going to get traffic on a course like this," he added philosophically. His next competitive outing will be a stage race in his native Northern Ireland but, following this victory in the first of the RTTC/ Rudy Project time trial series of the year, he confirmed that time trialling was still very much at the top of his agenda for 2003.

Leading local positions in the senior category were: 22nd Chris Anderson (Lakes RC) 1-07-13; 26th Ben Lawson (Kent Valley) 1-08-27; 28th Paul Maxwell (Lakes RC) 1-08-43; 30th Chris Barron (KV) 1-09-39; 36th Adrian Yate (KV) 1-11-11; and 42nd Tim Bennett (KV) 1-14-34.

The Kent Valley Road Club organised event also catered for veteran, women, junior and disabled riders. And host club riders were well to the fore in the veteran category with John Ingham (1-06-42) and Brice Attwood (1-06-51) finishing second and third behind Rossendale's impres-sive Billy Rogers, who covered the course in 1-04-07. Barrow's Mike Speight was ninth with 1-09-20 and Kent Valley's John Leach was 11th on 1-10-54. Steve Unsworth (KV) clocked 1-26-30.

Fastest disabled rider was Thomas Evans of Rockingham Forest Whs with a time adjusted for his disability of

1-14-30.

Melanie Sears (terry-dolan.com RT) got the better of Cumbria's national best all-rounder champion Karen Steele in the ladies encounter, 1-09-42 to 1-12-47, and Ulverston's Anne Plant (Caygill Frames RT) finished fourth with 1-15-19 and took the lady veteran award as well. Kent Valley's Lynn Hamel did 1-27-47.

Possibly the ride of the day came in the junior section where Matt Brammier (Life Repair RT) did 1-01-12 less than 24 hours after missing the British junior 10 miles record on the Levens 10 course with a sparkling 19-39 behind overall 10 winner Craig Battersby's 19-32. Also riding Saturday's event were Kent Valley's John Leach and Sharon Padley. They stopped the clock at 22-23 and 22-46 respectively.

Last week's Kent Valley midweek club 10 at Milnhtorpe was won by Ben Lawson in 23:51 from Ian Bullough 25:39; Jon Richardson 25:42; Nigel Hooker 25:43; Kevin Preston 26:47 and Terence Tideswell 27:04. Fastest woman was Heather Addison with 28:54. The next night's Jungle Caf hilly event was won by Stuart McGurk 37:32 from Bruce Barnes 39:34; Lois Gosnay 40:17; and Lynn Hamel 41:34.

April 17, 2003 14:30