Cycling: Gullen smashes course record and continues superb start to season

The Lancaster-based Pedal Heaven rider clocked 1hr 0min 6sec to triumph in the 28-mile event hosted by the North Lancs Road Club.

He lowered the six-year course record by a whopping 1m 38sec as he beat Preston CC’s Matt Moorhouse (1.04.55) into second 
spot.

Mark Haydock, of the home club, finished third in a time of 1.05.55 on the L281 circuit around Pendle Hill.

For Gullen, though, it was a second successive victory and another course best after his win in the Rossendale Road Club’s 11-mile Bolton-by-Bowland time trial the previous weekend.

The 26-year-old, who was also fourth in the recent Clayton Spring Classic, said: “It was really good. I had seen there was an extra prize for the course record so I put a bit of pressure on myself to take that.

“The course is quite hilly so I was just trying to spend as much energy as I could on the climbs and then on 
the fast run back just cling on.

“About halfway round I could see I was going well enough to break the course record but I was delighted to do it by so much.”

Gullen also tasted victory in round two of the Lancaster University Spring Crits on Saturday, sealing a Pedal Heaven one-two with Jack Pullar, from Bolton-le-Sands.

The duo are next in action for the UCI Continental team at the 55th Eddie Soens Road Race at Aintree Racecourse on Saturday.