John Archibald takes National 10 mile time trial title

The 27-year-old clocked 18 minutes 18 seconds over the course near Irvine to edge out national record holder Marcin Bialoblocki by three seconds.

It’s the latest in a series of fine rides by Archibald over the past few months, including individual pursuit silver in the Commonwealth Games, a fine fifth in the same event at the European Championships in Glasgow and fourth in the elite National Road Time Trial.

But after his win at Irvine he said: “I was quite surprised really. When I looked at the starting list there were quite a lot of big names there.”

Archibald, currently based in Derby with his team Ribble Pro Cycling, was boosted by plenty of local support which he said added to the atmosphere.

He said: “It’s quite unusual because these dual carriageway time trials are normally the kind of event where everyone gets into the village hall afterwards, finds out their time and goes home.

“But this one had an atmosphere to it - there were people in laybys who recognised me and were shouting me on as I went by, so it was a kind of surreal experience as it is unusual for that level.

“The local organisers had put a start ramp out, which has never been done before at one of these events. That’s normally reserved for the elite time trials. And when the results were being read out any Scottish person who won a prize, got a big cheer.”

John is now preparing for his next target - the World Cup track series which he will ride with Ribble and which begins in Paris on October.