English matches record with third win in a week

His winning 20min. 59sec. clocking put him level with Seb Tremlett as the quickest club-affiliated rider over the distance, although neither time is quite on a par with Sarnian pro James McLaughlin’s island record of 19-55.

He held a good margin on second-quickest man Tony Bleasdale in 22-09, and third-placed Andy Colver, who was another three seconds behind Bleasdale.

English, 21, was happy with his time on the course, which featured an outward leg out to just past Fort Grey and a shorter return leg towards Vazon headland, amid a quieter block of training and racing following his Gold Coast campaign in April.

‘It was my first time jumping on a time trial bike since the Commonwealth Games, so I wanted to keep an open mind and didn’t really know what to expect,’ he said.

‘Everyone said it was pretty average conditions so I didn’t expect anything particularly quick. On the way out we had a headwind and then it was the slightly shorter leg to the finish where we had a tailwind.’

Jo Watts came out top among the women with a 25-33 clocking, while Amy Critchlow and Danielle Hanley occupied the next two spots with a pair of 26-02 finishes.

This was English’s second local win of the week, coming after he won both rounds of last week’s Sprint and Hill Climb at L’Eree over Marc Cox.

He clocked a 1-52.4 to take two seconds out of Cox on the opening sprint, before advancing another five seconds on the hill climb with a time of 4-35.0 to top the standings.

However, he had to settle for second in Sunday’s Talbot Loop Road Race as 17-year-old star Sam Culverwell took his third win of this year’s GVC road-racing series.

Both English and senior rider Steve Dawes had contended with Culverwell over much of the hilly course, covering each other’s moves over eight laps of the five-mile circuit.

It all came down to a final-lap sprint, which Culverwell emerged victorious from in a total time of 1-46-26 as English and Dawes took the remaining ‘podium’ positions.

The women’s race was an equally tight one, but veteran Watts took a second win of the weekend after edging out fellow Gotland 2017 cyclist Hanley by less than half a second with a six-lap time of 1-41-11.7.

This weekend’s cycling action resumes with another Cobo 10-mile time trial on Saturday and an inter-insular clash at the CI Race Series the following day.

The time trial has been moved forward to a 6.45am start to combat early morning traffic issues.

Meanwhile entries are now open for the annual MTB Tour of Guernsey, which runs from 1 to 8 July and comprises six stages.

The event is open to all standards.