ANTHONY MALARCZYK was crowned the Welsh National Time Trial champion on Saturday - and then began planning another race yesterday over in the West Country.

The 27-year-old Welsh international from Cwmfelinfach beat his 4bikesonline.com teammate Paul Sheppard, of Cwmcarn, by 32 seconds over a 50-kilometre, two-lap course in North Gwent.

The riders from all over Wales were sent off individually from Llanarth, down to the outskirts of Abergavenny, along the A40 dual carriageway to Raglan and then back to Llanarth.

And, by the end of the first lap, Malarczyk had gained a slight advantage over Sheppard of about 15 seconds.

But, as hard as Sheppard tried to close the gap, the steaming hot day on the road took its' toll and he had lost another 15 seconds to his teammate.

However, the new Welsh champion said: "I could have paced it a lot better. There were a few places on the dual (carriageway) when I thought I was losing it and I dropped down a gear.

"But it's always good for the confidence to win something. The most important thing in time trialing is to get your timing right. You cannot go as fast as you want because you can burn yourself out and end up doing a worse time than you would want."

Sheppard had to contend with trying to get past a tractor pulling bails of hay at the start which he managed after a hair raising dart out into the opposite carriageway with a car coming towards him.

And he also had to negotiate a stationary motorcyclist on the fast decent to the Hardwick Roundabout at Abergavenny when speeding at 40 miles per hour, witnessed by, among others, Abergavenny's World Elite circuit professional Julian Winn, who had ridden down to the roundabout to talk with officials and watch part of the racing.

However, those, in no way, slowed him up and Malarczyk's victory was thoroughly deserved. The Cwmfelinfach rider had a night's rest before travelling over to Somerset with Rogerstone-based colleague Stuart MacDonald for a trip around the roads there.

And such is the dedication of Malarczyk that he planned to be dropped off after that journey into England at the Severn Bridge and take to the saddle again for a leisurely 20-odd mile ride back to Gwent's Western Valley.

Now both Malarczyk and Sheppard, along with a number of other Gwent riders, will be doing some more warm-up races in preparation for the Argus-sponsored National Road Race Championships this weekend.

There were also medals in the Welsh Time Trial Championships for Newport Pheonix Ben Simmonds, who took the Welsh Time Trial Championships junior crown, while CC Abergavenny's Melanie Graham won the women's category and Dave Ponting, also of Abergavenny, took the Masters D (veterans) crown.