ROUND 11 of the Wessex Cyclo-cross League, organised by Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers on Clump Hill, west of Ringwood, ended almost as soon as it began so far as the winner was concerned.

Defending champion Stuart Bowers (Hargroves Cycles Trant RT) was anticipating a close tussle with his winter training partner and clubmate, Will O'Callaghan, but the latter, anxious to shine in his own club's promotion, was left well behind when he crashed immediately after starting. With none of the other 45 entrants able to mount an effective challenge, Bowers romped away to another runaway victory, winning the 'hour-long' race in little more than 45 minutes!

"We reckoned riders would take about 7 minutes to complete the circuit and decided eight laps would be far enough but Bowers seemed to be going faster each time he came round," explained race organiser John Wear.

Bowers was taking little more than five minutes to lap the two-kilometre course in asserting his superiority and the biggest loser was the league leader, Paul Lloyd (Didcot Phoenix). Having raced in nine league meetings already this season, he failed to add to his points tally of 249 after finishing sixth, over four minutes behind Bowers who still has four races in hand on his Berkshire rival.

Lloyd should hold his diminishing lead until the New Year, but Sean Williams (Vectis Off-Shore sports CC) could lose second spot by then. Veterans champion Andrew MacDonald (GA Cycles) who normally excels on courses where running plays a prominent part, showed he is still a force to be reckoned with in fast conditions too. After being caught by O'Callaghan in the last 15 minutes in pursuit of Bowers, he was content to wait for his less experienced rival to make an error.

This came on the last lap when O'Callaghan raced wide on a bend, giving MacDonald the chance to surge past him and finish second, closing the ten-point gap on Williams who was fifth on this occasion.

While bright sunshine gave the cyclo-cross competitors ideal conditions in Dorset it was a finger-numbing morning for the 37 entrants who set out from Romsey two hours earlier on the third reliability ride of the winter organised by Sotonia CC.

This one took riders up the Bourne Valley towards the Wiltshire border but, before reaching the tributary of the River Test, the route took them up the long hill to Braishfield.

"That warmed us all up and we all enjoyed the rest of the ride," said Sotonia's Mary Corbett, but there was disappointment for clubmate Alan Sharpen at the finish in Timsbury. Volunteering to ride as "tail-end Charlie" to "sweep up" anyone delayed on the 50-mile course, he came equipped with a small broom attached to his cycle but was the only one to suffer a mechanical problem, when it dropped off sometime during his four-hour ride.

Wessex Cyclo-cross: 1 Stuart Bowers (Hargroves Cycles RT) 16km in 45.19, 2 A MacDonald (GA Cycles) @ 2.13, 3 W O'Callaghan (Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers) @ 2.28, 4 S Willatts (X-treme) @ 3.4, 5 S Williams (Vectis Off-Shore Sports CC) @ 3.37, 6 P Lloyd (Didcot Phoenix) @ 4.3, 7 P Gale (GA Cycles) @4.45, 8 N Chadbourne (X-treme) @ 5.16, 9 K Blann (Liphook Cycles) @ 1 lap, 10 M Cross (Hargroves Cycles RT), 15 A Gough (Portswood Cycles), 16 B Saunders (Hargroves Cycles RT), 17 T Hillier (GA Cycles), 18 S Foster (Andover Wheelers), 19 S Gough (Portswood Cycles), 21 G Allen (GA Cycles), 24 A Parker (North Hampshire RC), 26 C Mills (New Forest CC) A 2 laps. Under-12s: 1 James Harris (Didcot Phoenix), 2 P Dibben (New Forest CC), 3 J Dibben (New Forest CC), 4 A Harris (Didcot Phoenix), 5 D Searle (Salisbury RC), 6 S Best (Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers.