Cycling

But it was Malcolm Elliott, the former Tour de France rider who celebrated his 43rd birthday last week and has made a remarkable return to top-flight racing, who led the fightback by home-based riders after the previous week's national title race in South Wales.

Roger Hammond, who rides for Belgium's Mr Bookmaker.com-Palmans team, had led a clean sweep of the top six places by overseas based riders in the championship when his team-mate Jeremy Hunt, champion in 1997 and 2001, claimed the bronze. But in the Grainger Trust event, held as two separate races without an overall classification, Elliott got proceedings under way when he outsprinted Hammond and Hunt to win the opening 28.5-mile circuit race.

Darlington's comeback rider Kevin Byers claimed an impressive fourth place. Jeremy Hunt had his moment of glory in the 100-mile road race, when he led in a six-man breakaway group ahead of Chris Newton, the 2002 world points race champion from Stockton who was riding for the GB track squad.

Weeks of preparation went down the pan for Darlington's Keith Murray and his Science in Sport.com team-mates Stuart Dangerfield and Neil Rothwell in the inaugural national three-up 50-kilometre team time trial championship in Sussex.

The event was one of the squad's big targets for the season after team captain Murray had signed Dangerfield, the individual national champion at 10 and 25 miles, but their hopes of glory were dashed when Rothwell punctured in the first 15 kilometres. As Rothwell abandoned, Murray and Dangerfield continued alone to complete the course but were not given an official finishing time.

Mike Harris (Northumbria Police CC) smashed the course record to win the Prison Service CC's open ten-mile time trial on a course at Widdrington, near Morpeth. Ferryhill Wheelers' 50-mile TT, due to be held over a reverse of the same course the previous afternoon, was cancelled in advance of the event.