THERE’S a chance to watch East Lancashire pro cyclist Ian Wilkinson on our TV screens during the next few weeks.

Since the Clayton Spring Classic at the end of February, Wilkinson has been racing with his Endura team in France and Belgium, but last weekend came back with a bang to be clear winner of the 93-mile North West Senior Road Race Championships held in Cumbria.

He will be riding for his Endura squad in the Halfords-sponsored Tour Series being screened on ITV4 each Wednesday and Friday at 8pm.

The first counter in Durham was shown last night but if you missed the broadcast there is a chance of seeing the repeat at 11am today.

Steven Burke will also be in action in the Tour Series, riding in the colours of the UK Youth squad.

Although the Maxgear RT pairing of Wayne and Tony Greenhalgh were fastest in the Blackburn and District CTC 2-up 10 mile team time trial, our local riders took four of the top six places.

Second overall were Ian Stott and Carl Helliwell with a time of 20 minutes 42 seconds, which was just 18 seconds behind the winners. Fourth came Jimmy Wright and Paul Fleming (20-52), fifth Julian Markham and Dave Ebbrell (21-28) and sixth Duncan Park and Mark Charnock-Bateman (21-34).

Paul Warrener was best in his own Rossendale Road Club 10 mile at Hapton with 25m 34s followed by club mates Roy Flanagan (26-09) and Derek Schofield (26-13) with Andy Horner of Bury fourth in 26-41.

The Pendle Forest ‘10’ was won by their own Ian Duckworth in 24-09 with Tony Sowden second (25-06), Martin Brass third (25-29) and Martin Welsh fourth (25-39).

Duncan Park of the promoting club was fastest in the North Lancs Road Club ‘10’ at Clitheroe with 24 minutes 17 seconds, beating Paul Warrener (24-56), Paul Taylor (25-08) and Richard Sagar (25-19).

Organiser of this Sunday’s Fylde Road Race, Dave Hargreaves, has had more time available for the job, having an arm in plaster after a tractor cut across his path in a time trial in the same area.

The League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (LVRC) event has 70 riders with just over 10 per cent of them from our area. The race will be using a new course replacing the popular Elswick one.

The Start time is 10 am and the new headquarters are at Out Rawcliffe Village Hall (PR3 6TR).