Victory for Helen Wyman in the national women's cyclo-cross championship will have delighted many people in Norfolk.

Victory for Helen Wyman in the national women's cyclo-cross championship will have delighted many people in Norfolk.

Helen, whose parents, Phil and Val Saunders, live at Trunch near North Walsham, started racing as a 14-year-old with the King's Lynn CC.

A pupil at Smithdon High School, Hunstanton, she earned pocket money working in the Fat Birds Don't Fly bike shop, which now sponsors her Team FBUK women's professional team.

Prominent in East Anglian mountain bike racing and cyclo-cross early in this decade, she studied physiotherapy at university and worked briefly in the profession before taking the plunge and racing full-time, helped by her husband and FBUK team manager, Stefan Wyman.

In the championship race at Sutton Park, Birmingham, Helen decided to start fast and see who could stay with her - and nobody could.

She lost about 15 seconds getting tangled with the tapes on a slippery corner, but stayed clear of the field, and had a 37-second lead at the line.

“It was a brilliant feeling as this was my first-ever national title in any discipline” said Helen, who has already returned to Belgium to continue her preparation for the World Championship race at Zeddam in Holland in three weeks' time.

t Robert Hunt (Diss & District CC) was the best of the local riders in the senior men's championship, finishing 41st in a race won by Discovery Channel pro Roger Hammond. An off-colour Shaun Aldous was a non-starter and Carl Davey quit around half-distance, leaving Neil Stevens (VC Norwich) as the best Norwich finisher in 55th place.