First trial launches search for Trent Valley Road Cycling Club's champions

The series began with the shortest course of 23 miles, for which the seven riders had to choose one of five time categories, ranging from A, which represented an average apeed of 20mph, through to E, which represented an average speed of 12mph.

Walker and Adlington both chose B (18mph), which gave them a maximum time allowance of one hour, 16 minutes. The former came home in a very good time of one hour, eight minutes, 56 seconds, while the latter clocked one hour, 11 minutes, 36 seconds. Their performances lifted them to the top of the points table in the club’s new competition to find overall men’s and ladies’ champions. They have 13 apiece.

The route for the trial took the riders out on to the A631 to Harpswell Top, left towards Kirton in Lindsey and then left again at Grayingham crossroads before heading back via Blyton to finish in Gainsborough.

On a bitterly cold but dry morning, other notable performances came in the C category (16mph), which had a time allowance of one hour, 26 minutes. Gary Reevell clocked 1.17.14, Jeremy Hodson 1.17.54 and Rob Brooks 1.10.23, with all collecting 11 points.

In the D category (14mph), with a time allowance of one hour, 38 minutes, Kieran Sandall recorded 1.27.48 to claim nine points, while Aiden Bott posted a time of 1.37.13 to pick up the same number of points.