Darlington's Keith Murray maintained the upper hand but suffered like the rest in the hot and windy conditions for Pennine CC's 50-mile time trial.

In a repeat of the result of the Bramley Wheelers event on the same course three weeks earlier, Murray beat his arch rival Joel Wainman, from Hull.

He slowed almost two minutes, to 1hr 48min 59sec, on the A168 and A1 course from Boroughbridge to Catterick and back but stretched his winning margin over Wainman from three seconds to 17. Sheffield's Darren Otter was third.

"Conditions were just horrible,'' said Murray.

"There was no wind at all when I started, but by the time I got to the turn at Catterick it was quite strong and it was a full headwind all the way back to Boroughbridge."

The previous afternoon, Murray had set a career best ten-mile time of 19min 23sec in Brough Wheelers' invitation event on the North Cave section of the A63 in East Yorkshire.

He was improving seven seconds on his previous best set on the same course two years ago, although he had to settle for fourth place in the event as Stuart Dangerfield and Michael Hutchinson, currently Britain's top two short-distance experts, continued their rivalry.

Dangerfield, although six seconds off his own British record set at the end of June, clocked an impressive 18min 25sec to trim 11 seconds off the course record and beat Hutchinson by 19 seconds.

Keith Murray rides another ten-mile event in North Nottinghamshire next Saturday, and the Cleveland Wheelers 50-mile TT on Sunday, but will then be calling a halt to his time trial season.

After some impressive performances last season he is planning a major campaign of cyclo-cross during the coming winter with the National Trophy series his main target.

Leeds rider David Thomas, of GS Orion, was fastest in Stockton Wheelers' 25-mile TT on the Crathorne course. Thomas covered the distance in 53min 37sec to finish with 38 seconds to spare over Geoff Robinson, of Cleveland Wheelers.

The promoting club's own rider Stuart Whitell made his return to the open road by clocking 54-32 for third place.