MALCOLM COX (VC St Raphael Waite Contracts) got his season off to the best of starts with a double triumph.

He won the first open time trial of the year over an 18 kilometre course in West Sussex, and then returned to Storrington to make it two out of two over a hillier 43 kilometre circuit on the following morning.

Both races were organised by GS Stella and took the place of a single event near Chichester which Cox won two years ago.

"I should have won it last year too, but I fell off on the way round," he said, before being presented with the Les Jarvis Memorial Trophy, awarded to the rider with the best overall time.

The Hedge End star, whose winter training includes long stings on his turbo trainer before breakfast, raced to an impressive winning margin of 42 seconds on Saturday afternoon, but this was trimmed to 16 seconds over the longer distance.

The promoting club's Mark Jones and John Limpus were the runners-up to lead the team winners on both days. Fred Shepherd (Wessex Veterans TTA) at 69 the oldest entrance in the two events, also achieved the "double" as best on standard for his age from individual times of 33.30 seconds and 1.15.4.

After warm sunshine gave the 56 entrants a comfortable introduction to the racing season on Saturday the weather took a turn for the worse by the following morning.

Several sections of the course were awash with water flowing off flooded fields, but 44 of the 58 riders set out in wind and rain to defy the elements and it paid off for Fareham Wheeler, Jason Lyons.

He though he finished outside the £900 worth of prizes after clocking 31.6 and 1.12.35, but these times were good enough to win a consolation prize given by Cox to the fastest loser.

Results

Race 1: 1 Malcolm Cox (VC St Raphael) 18km in 27.8, 2 M Jones (GS Stella) 27.50, 3 M Parsons (Phoenix TC) 28.34, 4 D Shepherd (Rother Valley CC) 28.55, 5 N Baker (VC Deal) 29.10, 6 J Sharpe (Cycleweb Co UK) 29.13.

Race 2: 1 Malcolm Cox 43km in 1.3.52, 2 J Limpus (GS Stella) 1.4.8, 3 K Jones 1.6.36, 4 M Parsons 1.6.36, 5 D Shepherd 1.6.37, N Baker 1.8.7.

Overall Classification: 1 Malcolm Cox 1.31.0, 2 M Jones @ 1.22, 3 M Parsons @ 4.10, 4 D Shepherd @ 4.32, 4 N Baker @ 6.17, 6 J Sharpe @ 6.34.