Cycling: Boardman squad's record: Triumph for the man of the hour

THE Olympic pursuit champion, Chris Boardman, led his North Wirral Velo squad to a championship record in yesterday's qualifying time trial for the team pursuit during the BCF national track championships at Leicester.

Boardman, making his first competitive appearance since smashing the world hour record in Bordeaux last Friday, led the quartet home in 4min 24.82sec for 4,000 metres. The team also included Simon Lillistone, who had been a member of the Haverhill squad which set the old record of 4:28.09 a year ago.

North Wirral, with the Olympic rider Paul Jennings and a professional, Jon Walshaw, in their line-up, finished more than six seconds ahead of this year's Haverhill squad of Adrian Allen, Bryan Steel, Scott Sanders and Andrew Forbes.

Boardman's squad beat the old record again when clocking 4:27.05 in their quarter-final against Manchester's Westmead Team '88. Wirral now meet the slowest of the winning quarter-finalists, City of Edinburgh RC, in today's semi-final. Haverhill face Tony Doyle's Dinnington RC squad.