ROBERT HURD of Winchester made it three-out-of-three when he won the final round of late season races organised by Twickenham CC for the Surrey League at Chobham on Sunday.

Racing for RCS Bioagrico of Belgium, Hurd repeated his successes of the previous two events by taking the chequered flag on his own again. This time he was happy to let other riders lead the 102 kilometre race in the early stages when the officials gave them a minute's start over ten of the fittest men.

That early advantage lasted for two laps but Hurd was content to restrain his natural aggression until the second hour. Few were able to stay with him once he began to force the pace, and Simon Cope (Team Omega) a former British circuit champion, was the last to share Hurd's company, dropping back on the penultimate lap to finish second, at 26 seconds, after Hurd completed the distance in 2 hours 6 minutes.

"It was more difficult this time and I didn't feel too good last week but I spent Saturday night at Winchester fireworks display and felt better for it," said Hurd who surprised fellow riders at race headquarters by telling them he felt safer racing on British roads.

"It's so much faster in Belgium and you know if you fall off you're going to hurt yourself," he explained.

Ben Saunders (Hargroves Cycles RT Trant) was even more dominant in the Wessex Cyclo-cross League meeting staged by Oxonian CC at Bletchingdon. He lapped all the other 33 entrants on the 1.18 mile circuit on his way to completing nine laps of the moto-cross course in 1.7.17. Dorset Rough Rider, Dean Thorne, was best of the rest, while leading junior, Darren Dowling (Farnborough & Camberley CC) beat the best veteran, Eddie Yarker (Didcot Phoenix) in a much closer battle to finish sixth.

All four-team participants in the second Sotonia CC reliability trial of the winter, over a 50 mile course across the New Forest to Ringwood and back to Totton, beat the rain which swept across the area in the afternoon, with six finishing around an hour ahead of the four-hour limit set for the ride.