Tremlett shines but Cox suffers as carriages block carriageway

But spare a thought for his GVC colleague Marc Cox, whose hopes of achieving the required ‘A’ standard at the national 25-mile time-trials in the Lake District were stymied by a remarkably unlucky encounter with three sets of horses and carriages and a consequential traffic tailback on a stretch of 60mph dual carriageway.

‘I was very, very unlucky,’ said Cox, 34, on his return to the island yesterday.

Of the circa 100-strong entry Cox was among ‘seven or eight’ who were caught in the jam. With time so precious, the delay cost him several minutes and with a time of 51min. 28sec. he ultimately placed 33rd, nearly four minutes down on Tremlett, who he had hoped to emulate in terms of performance.

‘Seb had an unbelievable ride (47min. 42sec.) and I would have done well to get near him,’ said Cox. ‘I am over the moon for him,’ he added after his remarkably improbable set of circumstances.

‘A minute or two into the ride we hit a traffic jam backing up. I wasn’t au fait about the rules of passing. I did not know what the protocol was.

‘I came to a standstill at one point and then picked my way through the traffic as safely as I could.’

While Tremlett achieved his goal of a top-10 finish, Cox, who had not previously ridden a UK mainland time-trial, is now focused on one last chance of achieving the Commonwealth standard, which is at the 10-mile national championship in September.

‘It is not all lost. I have still got one more chance. The mindset is carry on until the next one.’