ABERGAVENNY'S Julian Winn may be going to the Olympic Games in Athens next month, but he is not too big to help smaller events.

The 31-year-old was in a diluted entry that took part in the Welsh Criterium Championships at the University of Wales, Newport, campus in Caerleon yesterday.

And he won the event in a sprint finish at the end of an hour of circling the campus' roads, plus five finishing laps of the one-kilometre route.

Winn also confirmed that the knee injury which threatened his participation in next month's Olympics looks to be on the mend.

He spent almost a week in Lanzarote after suffering tendonitis when crashing into a high kerb on the Tour of Serbia earlier this month, and his games chances looked to be in trouble.

However, bronzed from his time away in the sun, Winn was in the lead group of three riders that made all the progress at Caerleon yesterday.

And afterwards he said: "I thought I felt a bit of a tweak at one point of the race, but I'm fine.

"This is all part of my programme for the Olympics. I rode here from home, and I'm going to ride back again."

And he said of his support for Welsh racing: "I like to ride races like this because, without people entering them, they will die. I enjoyed it a lot, but it was a bit close at the end."

As for his time away in the heat, the Olympian added: "Lanzarote was good and I had to rest until the Sunday (last week) because of my injury, but I had four days' training and it was good to be in a hot climate.

"I was going in the heat all day to make sure I got used to it before hitting Athens." Yesterday's Welsh Criterium may have been low on his priority order, but it still meant another lot of miles in his legs prior to Athens.

Domestically, there was a battle of Abergavenny in the senior men's race. Abergavenny RC's Steve Thomas took the crown from CC Abergavenny's Geraint Day in a sprint finish after 43 kilometres.

And Caroline Gay was dominant in the women's event by lapping everyone to win ahead of Rebecca Jones, of North Wales.