VETERANS showed few signs of the long cycling season by filling the top five places in the Sotonia CC 50-mile time trial at Andover.

The event was held in conjunction for the first time with the Chandler's Ford based club's autumn 25, and that also ended with another four veterans in the top six.

Race favourite, Ray Hughes (Clarence Wheelers) maintained his winning sequence on southern roads in this race, gaining almost exactly four seconds per mile on Jeremy Short (Vectis OffsShore Sports CC) at 40 a newcomer to veterans status, to win in 54.0. But Leigh Smith (North Bucks RC) salvaged some pride for the younger riders by gaining just eight seconds on the promoting club's Mick St Leger, another 40-year-old to finish third.

Glenn Longland (Antelope RS Holdings RT) 48 last week, was not much slower than Hughes on his way to victory in the longer race, clipping 13 seconds off Malcolm cox's five-year-old course record to win the 50 in a sparkling 1.52.52. Terry Icke, 59, (Poole Wheelers) was the only other competitor to beat two hours in a race which only seven others finished inside 2.30.

Danny Axford's reputation of never winning a sprint ended in the Chilterns when he showed Welsh and Irish elite category rivals, Nick Kenwright (Abergavenny RC) and Rory Wyley (London Irish CC) the way over the line at Studley Green in Buckinghamshire.

All three finished the 100k John Walker Memorial Race together with the Stilton parrot Print RT road man from Winchester winning in 2.32.6.

This year's Duo Normand time trial for teams of two at Marigny in France attracted 174 pairs from Great Britain. But this popular event ended in tragedy before it began when a Fareham entrant Bob Redrup collapsed and died whiletraining with colleagues on the course two days earlier.

A retired school teacher who raced for Fareham Wheelers before joining Northovers Veterans RT last year, Redrup was due to compete with his new teammate, Tom Woollard of Westbury. Sectators stood in silence for a minute at 10.27am - the time the pair were due to start, before Woollard set off alone to ride round the 54 kilometre course in memory of his partner.

"Although none of us had our hearts in the event we felt Bob would have wanted us to ride and we did so in his memory," said team director, Alan Dawson, after he and six other members of his squad completed the course.

Over 450 teams from 22 countries took part in this year's event, and British teams won four of the 13 categories. Pride of place went to the new national tandem record breakers, Glenn Taylor and Zak Carr (API Bikes).

They set a new race record of 1.9.40 which almost beat the outright winners, a team from Switzerland, but Simon Berogna and Steve Walkiling (VC St Raphael Waite Contracts) also excelled, beating the Andover Wheelers pair, Phil Bowley and Jake Prior, into second place to win the regional class in 1.15.42.

RESULTS:

Sotonia CC 50, Andover: 1 G Longland (Antelope RT) 1.52.52, 2 T Icke (Poole Wheelers) 1.55.18, 3 R Retter (North Devon Wheelers) 2.1.25, 4 G Chandler (Stratford CC) 2.16.9, 5 M Ward (Sotonia CC) 2.16.50, 6 J Eady (Andover Wheelers) 2.17.21, 8 K Mack (SCC) 2.20.42.

Sotonia CC 25, Andover: 1 R Hughes (Clarence Wheelers) 54.0, 2 J Short (Vectis OffShore Sports CC) 55.39, 3 L Smith (North Bucks RC) 56.9, 4 M St Leger (SCC) 56.17, 5 M Branbleby (Feltham RC) 56.47, 6 M Ashton (Off the Record Velocity) 57.17, 7 P Younghusband (Tri UK) 57.24, 8 W Grainger (AW) 57.32, 9 A Millward (VC Camelot) 57.42, 10 G Harman (SCC) 57.33, A Keinzle (Fareham Wheelers) 1.0.31, S Martingale (SCC) 1.0.59, R Burch (SCC) 1.2.17, I Knight (AW) 1.5.7, C Summers (SCC) 1.8.24, G Jones (FW) 1.8.35, C Crocker (SCC) 1.8.51, R Humphry (SCC) 1.15.1, E White (AW) 1.16.28. Team: Sotonia CC) Tandems: J Martin & P Welch (AW) 1.1.0.

Duo Normand, Marigny, France: 1 J Nuttli & J Summer (Switzerland) 54km in 1.9.37, 8 S Dangerfield & B Charley (Great Britain) 1.11.7, 19 R Horner & M Wareham (VC St Raphael) 1.16.16. Regionals: 1 S Berogna & S Walkling (VC St R) 1.15.42, 2 P Bowley & J Prior (AW) 1.18.2.

Veterans: 1 S Geran & M Jones (GS Stella) 1.18.55, 3 R Iddles & J Woodburn (Great Britain) 1.20.59, 23 M Hayward & T Jeffries (Salisbury RC) 1.30.8, 37 H Hibbert & S Wiltshire (Hantspol CC) 1.49.31.

Tandems: 1 G Taylor & Z Carr (API Bikes) 1.9.40. Women: 1 L Milne & J Shaw (GS Strada) 43km in 1.19.54.