SOUTHAMPTON'S Antelope Racing Team, once the strongest time-trialing club on the South Coast but now reduced to little more than a handful of members, relies on the support of clubs in the Bournemouth area for an inaugural race it organises in Dorset tomorrow.

Though still enjoying sponsorship by Radford Accountants, Antelope has failed to attract replacements for former members who have either moved on or dropped out of the sport altogether, and the 100-mile time trial it is organising will start without its secretary, Glenn Longland, a former British champion at the distance who has more than a score of sub-four-hour performances to his name.

With so few members to call on to assist with Sunday's promotion, Longland will be busy helping race organiser Roger Wakeling of Sherfield English, on the day, for his club's event is expected to play an important role in the outcome of this year's district Best All-Rounder Competition.

Riders with an interest in this annual contest who did not take part in a race over 100 miles earlier this season must complete this one.

And those with every intention of doing so are last Sunday's 50-mile winner Paul Rogers and his VC St Raphael Waite Contracts clubmates Malcolm Cox of Hedge End, and Chris Birch, who, with Rowan Horner, all helped their club win the national BAR competition for teams last season.

Rogers will start as favourite to win the individual honours too, despite the presence of the 1998 12-hour champion, Eamonn Deane, who heads a team of four Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers. Salisbury RC and Sotonia CC have teams of three in a field of 27, and there are another three pairs in a supporting race on tandems.

Bournemouth Arrow Fircroft Hotel members have an even more prestigious race to organise a few miles away later in the morning. This is the 141-kilometre British "Espoirs" Championship, for riders up to 23 years of age, which will start and finish at Bryanston School, Blandford.

Many of the 70 entrants have spent most of this year racing abroad, including favourite Russell Downing, a 21-year-old Yorkshire man returning from Italy to take part. Five members of Britain's World Cycling Performance Plan are listed plus 1998 junior champion Yanto Barker and last year's bronze medallist Justin Hoy.

Fareham Wheelers' annual road race for different age groups of veterans comes of age with its 21st promotion, based on the club's headquarters in Wallington. An 8-mile circuit on nearby Portsdown Hill will be used for this race, with distances ranging from 25 to 51 miles according to six different age groups.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.