SIMON Williams jumped on a bike five years ago as a way of continuing to enjoy some sort of sport after injuries. Little did he know, however, that he would catch the cycling bug and become a real speed ace.

Now Williams is the new Dursley Road Club record holder for Time Trial distances ranging from ten miles to a hundred miles and was honoured by his colleagues, among other recipients, at the club’s annual awards evening in Whitminster last Friday.

The engineer who works at Westlands in Yeovil thought he had found a sport he was pretty good at when nobody passed him on the roads.

Williams, 35, said: “I got injured playing other sports and cycling turned out to be one of the few things my body could cope with. That was five years ago.

“Cycling is something you can push yourself at and fit into life. I played rugby for my school and did my knee ligaments so I had to give that up. Then I did a bit of weightlifting but had back problems.

“Because cycling is no impact, it was quite gentle. I was reasonably quick and it went on from there.

“So, when I was riding to work and back, nobody was overtaking me and I was passing quite a few people so I decided to hunt down a club, joined Dursley and it went on from there.”

And as Dursley RC is mainly a time trialling club rather than other forms of competition, like road races, it was perfect for Williams. Time trialling has been described as the purest form of cycling. Man against the clock – and it fits well with Williams.

“I have never tried a road race. I have got into time trialling because that is what the Dursley guys do. I rode the National 10 and 50 (mile events) last year. I was down around 40th in those but it is very competitive. These guys are sort of semi-pros and a couple have ridden the Commonwealth Games, guys who have been in it from their early teens and I have been doing it for five years.”

He added: “I was pretty chuffed with the club awards. I enjoy it because you get out of it what you put in. It is nice to be part of a team but it is the joint effort that wins it. In this, it is all you. There is no hiding and if you are no good on the day, you know.”

Dursley members Michael Davis and Felix Wilkinson were both given three awards at the presentation last week, with Garry Strickland given the Clubman of the Year trophy.

Dursley Road Club Award winners: Road Bike Evening Points – Felix Wilkinson; Overall Evening Points – Michael Davis; Vets Evening Points – Graeme Davis; Hill Climb – Derek Smetham; Most Improved Rider – Felix Wilkinson; 10 mile Time Trial (club record - 19mins 34secs) – Simon Williams; 25 mile Time Trial (club record – 50mins 25secs) – Simon Williams; 100 mile Time Trial (club record – three hour 50mins 14secs) – Simon Williams; 10 mile Time Trial (personal best – 21mins 17secs) – Michael Davis; 25 mile Time Trial (personal best – 52mins 40secs) – Michael Davis; 10 mile Time Trial (personal best – 25mins 54secs) – Robert Andrewartha; 10 mile Time Trial (24mins 19secs) – Felix Wilkinson; Most Unfortunate Rider – Simon Phillips; Clubman of the Year – Garry Strickland.