CHRIS Ball (53-12 Multisports) gained nearly ten seconds per mile on Ian Ayliffe (Salisbury RC) to win the Bournemouth Arrow Fircroft Hotel 10 at Poole.

But the pair will have to be better matched when they team up for Primera Bournemouth's 25-mile time trial in Dorset tomorrow.

The two Wiltshire speed men proved to be a winning combination when they paired up to clock 55min 13sec to win a Poole Wheelers promotion on the same course last year, and they will start favourites to win again this time.

Twenty-seven teams, including Paul Flight and Brian Greensmith (Primera Bournemouth), runners-up a year ago, provide the opposition in the race for teams of two, and they will be followed out on the Upton by-pass course by two pairs on tandems and ten teams comprising three riders each.

Sotonia CC's mixed crew of Norman Harvey and Mary Corbett face the Andover Wheelers pair of Ian Knight and Phil Jacob in the tandem race, while the VC St Raphael Waite Contracts trio are the likely winners of the three-up, despite losing the services of Aan Stanton, who helped them win by over three minutes last year.

Former Army competitor Paul Haggerty, has taken his place to share the pace with Simon Berogna and Steve Walkling, and they will start as favourites. These three outpaced an Antelope RS Holdings RT squad comprising Glenn Longland, Matt Parton and Steve Wood over the same distance near Petersfield nearly two weeks ago, but the Southampton-based squad should come closer on this occasion.

Quite by coincidence one of Audax UK's best known randonnees takes place close to the headquarters of this event in Lytchett Matravers on the same day.

First held in 1978, the Dorset Coast 200 has become one of the best known randonnees in the country. It regularly attracts several hundred participants despite the hilly nature of a course which extends across the county to Devon, and the addition of a 100 kilometre 'Coastlet' ride in recent years has become a popular alternative for those seeking a shorter distance.