STUART Bowers (Scott UK/Hargroves) got his winter racing season off to a good start with two events on one day.

Bowers’ first competition was the Bournemouth Jubilee Hill Climb on Sunday morning when he recorded a time of two minutes 17 seconds to finish second on the tough ascent of Kingston near Corfe Castle.

The eventual winner was CC Weymouth’s Dean Critchel (2:09).

The best rider from the promoting club was Andy Graham who finished third with 2:12 to take the club hill climb championship.

Bowers’ cousin, Steve Groome, was sixth with 2:21 in his first Hill climb outing.

The second event for Charlton Marshall-based Bowers was his main objective for the day – the Crow Hill cyclo-cross competition near Ringwood where again he had to settle for second place, this time behind Adrian Lansley.

Of the event, Bowers said: “My form's not so good at the moment and I had to make a fair effort to get up to the front as I was gridded on the fourth row.

“I was fairly comfortable with the early pace.

“Adrian was pushing me and I was making time on him on the technical sections but he eventually managed to get a small gap to stick.”

Looking forward to the rest of the season, Bowers said: “At the moment, I just don’t have the form, but I'm being patient as it will come.”

Broadstone’s Luke Gray (Hargroves /Scott UK) had the luxury of starting on the front of the grid but fell back to 30th position after an incident early on left him with a foot unclipped from the pedal.

However, once he got going again Gray clearly enjoyed being at the front of the senior race finishing third and first junior.

SARAH’S STAR RIDESARAH Storey (VC St Raphael/Waite Contracts) continues to re-write the script for Paralympic athletes, winning the British National Open 3km pursuit title with a thoroughly convincing ride in the final at Manchester against Hannah Mayho (100% ME).

Mayho, one of the rising stars of women’s endurance team cycling, went off quickly, hoping to take advantage of Storey’s slow start and was quickly up by 2.8 seconds at the 1km mark.

During the second kilometre, Storey set about reducing the deficit in a strong and controlled ride that saw the advantage cut to 0.1 second.

Mayho then faded towards the end of the ride with Storey showing there was plenty left in the tank to record 3:40.244 to win by almost five seconds.

Storey used the event as a warm-up for the UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships at the Manchester Velodrome next month where Verwood’s Darren Kenny will also hope to retain his three world titles.