Clinton lowers his course record at Rugby but quickly sees it eclipsed

A full field of 120 riders contested the time trial in baking conditions, with Clinton heading a four-strong team from Mike Vaughan Cycles.

Also lining up for the Kenilworth bike shop would be Jack O’Neill and Mark Powell, both aiming to lower their personal bests on the A45 course.

Current Midlands women’s TT Series leader Liz Powell rounded off the team.

Powell recorded a new PB as she set an impressive time of 22:15 (27mph), winning the women’s category by 58 seconds and taking 33rd overall in the event.

Powell would not be so lucky as a mechanical on course cost him some time, seeing him cross the line in 23:38 (25.4mph) to take 62nd overall.

A rare Open TT appearance of O’Neill found him missing his start time by a handful of seconds.

Forced to wait until the next available slot, he was handed a 15-minute penalty, obscuring his new PB of 20:38 (29mph), which would have placed him in sixth.

Clinton was the first rider to crack 19 minutes, taking 35 seconds off the existing course record to clock 18:50 (31.9mph), just ten seconds short of his PB.

However, less than ten minutes later, Drag2Zero’s Matt Bottrill would take another 25 seconds off Clinton’s time to push him down to second.

His runners-up spot helped Mike Vaughan Cycles finish second in the team standings behind Drag2Zero who placed first, third and fifth overall.

Leamington triathlete Laura Fuller improved her best time by 3½ minutes to finish in 25:31.

Fuller is being coached in the cycling discipline by Team Jewson-MI Racing’s multiple national champion Mick Ives.

 Leamington C&AC’s 10-mile time trial championship resulted in a narrow win for Jason Haynes with only three seconds covering the top three.

Haynes, who was racing for the first time in two months, clocked 22min 31sec, with Richard Merrell and Eoin O’Flynn equal second on 22:34.

Pierre Guern (22:50) and Mark Thomas (22:53) also dipped below 23 minutes.

Anouk Molliex was the women’s champion in 26:38.