Fergus MuirThere were a lot of happy people at the finish of the East Anglian CC time trial where no less than 30 competitors, mostly local, recorded times inside the 'magic hour' for 25 miles.Fergus Muir

There were a lot of happy people at the finish of the East Anglian CC time trial where no less than 30 competitors, mostly local, recorded times inside the 'magic hour' for 25 miles.

Conditions were good, but not very good. There wasn't a cloud - or a vapour-trail - in the sky, but riders were faced with a steadily increasing breeze on the exposed final miles north from East Harling and around the Attleborough bypass.

'The last leg was the killer,' said Jim Burgess, the Lowestoft rider who came third in 53:47, riding a 98 inch fixed gear. Second placed Mark Arnold (TTW/Pedal Revolution) rode and even higher fixed gear - 112 inch - to finish in 52:35 and commented that even the Wymondham-Harling tailwind leg did not feel all that quick.

In fact the time of winner Peter Balls (West Suffolk Wheelers) sounds fast - 51:54, but it was 1:17 slower than his winning 50:27 in the Lee Valley CC 25 last week.

Nevertheless many riders recorded their best-ever times - including Lawrence Wright (59:28) and Brian Platts (1:3:18) whose club - the North Norfolk Wheelers - have regular Tuesday evening time trials on the Pretty Corner to Holt road which will form part of the route of the Tour of Britain on September 16 this year.

t Simon Asher of VC Norwich and Basil Moss of Cambridge CC sustained a break of 58 miles in the Ken Wright Memorial road race near Colchester.

Even though the bunch could sometimes catch sight of the breakaways, the gap was never closed. It got pretty desperate for Asher towards the end - he was cramping up - and the lead was too small for any tactical manoeuvres, so Asher settled for second.

Top roadman David Mclean took a day off from mass-start racing to win the Stowmarket and District 20 mile time trial in the North Suffolk lanes around Debenham. His 44:05 was 1:14 clear of second placed Andrew Leggett (Stowmarket & District) on a day which was sunny but featured an unhelpful crosswind on most of the course.

Norwich rider Josh Hannan (Extreme Sports Therapy) won the Under 16 race after a race-long solo break in the Eagle RC criteriums at Hog Hill. Then - teamed up with West Suffolk teenager Alan Trolove - he made a cross-country dash by train to ride to a Midlands XC MTB race where he took third in the Under 16s. Imogen Buick (Thetford MTB) was second here in the U16 girls and parents Sara Flatt and Phil Buick were third in their respective classes.

Other good recent results for local riders in MTB events came in the Muc-Off Eight-Hour enduro in Sussex where Elliott Lawrence (Fakenham Gas Centre) was 11th and Norwich rider Dean Pointer (Team Cycle Aid) was 14th in the solo men's class. Riverside stretches of the course provided unexpectedly muddy going on a dry weekend.

Nino Piccoli, sponsored by Norwich bike shop Pedal Revolution, put in a 50:57 ride to win the hotly contested Team Swift 25 in Yorkshire.