ONE of Worcester's top cyclists Jon Dayus finished third overall in the three-day Tour de la Charente-Limousin in France.

Dayus, who lives and races in France for team Nantes 44, finished fourth on the first day's 151 km stage and continued to ride consistently without losing too much time to those in front of him on the overall classification, finishing the three days only four seconds behind the leader.

Malvern's Tim Wood (Stourbridge CC) turned in his best ever ride in the National 25 mile Time Trial Championships when he finished fifth in Cumbria on Sunday.

Wood rides the event every year which attracts the nation's top 120 time trialists. He has Ppreviously never reached the top ten. The race was won by Wolverhampton's Stuart Dangerfield in 49-13 followed closely by Michael Hutchinson (Team MDT) with 49-28. Wood clocked 52-34, but it was a close thing for Wood who finished just one second ahead of sixth place Staurt Shawcross (Team Lighthouse).

Adrian Bird, of Worcester, had an unlucky ride in the Telford Ton road race on Sunday. Bird was in a 15-strong break on the final lap of the 100km race and attacked to go clear hoping for a win. Bird forged a reasonable gap, but came down on a wet corner. As he picked himself up he was caught by the break. Chaos ensued as five of these riders also crashed out on the slippery corner! Bird managed to remount and hobbled to the finish where Chris Ansley (Triangle RT) took the win from the battered remnants of the race.

Worcester St. Johns Tuesday night events continued with the Byrd Cup Event, a handicap 20 mile event. Second fastest rider Nick Toy, won the event on handicap and took the Byrd Trophy. Fastest veteran was Martin Staines, with Sarah Emmerson the fastest lady.

Results: Dave Walker 49-50, Nick Toy 52-10, Martin Staines 54-20, Steve Potter 55-48, Sarah Emmerson 56-18, Maureen Burrows 56-31, Tony Knight 57-40, Gordon Chamberlain 1-3-54, Jeff Grainger 1-5-20, Brian Nicol 1-10- 04.