With the cycling programme on the open road being drastically cut by foot and mouth restrictions, Ferryhill Wheelers snatched second place in one of the few events to go ahead.

Knaresborough Racing Team staged their four-man team time trial over a ten-mile course on the the old Great North Road, the A168 between Boroughbridge and Walshford.

In four-up events, the time of the third man to finish is what matters so the Pete Read Racing RT squad were at no disadvantage in spite of turning out only three riders.

Their trio of Joel Wainman, Eddie Woolock and Steve Smales covered the distance in 21min 58sec to finish with 47 seconds to spare.

The Ferryhill quartet of Andrew Watson, John Hewison, Ian Stokoe and Steve Davies clocked 22.45, scraping second place by two seconds.

Cleveland Wheelers (Marcus Smith, Tony McGouran, Martyn Dobson and Philip Garton) claimed sixth place in 23.27.

Among events called off because of foot and mouth restrictions was Stockton Wheelers' ten-mile time trial at Crathorne.

"The course itself was not a problem, because it is on the A19 trunk road, but there are two farms in Crathorne village, where we have the race headquarters,'' explained organiser Jim Conlin.

One cyclist who can see both sides of the problem is Chris Isats, a member of the Steve Goff Frames RT squad whose rider-manager is Darlington's Keith Murray.

Isats and his family are tenant farmers of the Duke of Northumberland at Chatton, near Wooler, where they have 450 breeding ewes and 20 heifers, and his only cycling for the past three weeks has been on his static trainer at the farm.

"I am confined to the farm at the moment,'' he said.

"I could probably go out and train on the road, but it wouldn't look very good among the other farmers in the area.

"The main problem is motivating myself to keep up my training, beause I just don't know how long this is going on and when I am going to be able to start racing again.

"Smaller sports like cycling are being hit very hard because of the restrictions, and yet football is carrying on virtually as normal with supporters travelling the length and breadth of the country.''