Steve Dennis, the newly-crowned Sussex 25-mile champion, produced two more top rides to win the East Sussex CA's 10 and 25-mile time trials and the prize for best overall rider.

Dennis (East Grinstead CC) won the ten-mile event at East Hoathly in 20min.51sec. Brighton Mitre's Tristan Court finished second in 21min.49sec and Farnborough rider Nick Bowdler was third in 21min.52sec.

Angela Nainby (East Grinstead) won the women's event in 24min.41sec.

Dennis won the following day's 25 at Maresfield in 53min.24sec while London rider Peter Hamilton (34th Nomads) was second fastest in 55min.38sec and Brian Phillips (East Grinstead), who won several national team championships with the crack Manchester Wheelers team in the Eighties, was third in 56min.4sec.

Steve Frame (Eastbourne Rovers) finished fourth in 56min.24sec and Seaford rider Dave Pollard (In Gear), recent winner of a national Masters championship, was fifth in 56min.44sec. Nainby completed a double by winning the women's event in 1hr.5min.0sec.

Harry Featherstone (Eastbourne Rovers) returned to winning form again after his recent accident to win the veterans' handicap prize with a fast time of 1hr.2min.18sec while East Grinstead (Dennis, Phillips and Paul Blackmore) won the team prize in both events.

James Millard (API), the Welsh open 25-mile champion, won Bognor Regis CC's 25 in 52min.26sec but Mike Murray (Brighton Excelsior) was the fastest Sussex competitor, finishing ninth in 57min.21sec.

The Excelsior team of Murray, Charlie Parsons and Neil Garrett won the team event and Helen Carter (Eastbourne Rovers) won the women's prize in 1hr.1min.31sec.

Brighton rider Mike Coyle (VC Etoile) will be hoping to repeat his 2002 success in the Open 25 promoted by the Sussex and Surrey Veterans' Association at Maresfield on Sunday (7.30am).

Other leading contenders for the scratch prize include Tristan Court (Brighton Mitre) and Lloyd Grayston (Eastbourne Rovers), while Harry Featherstone will be favourite to win the age-related handicap prize.

The Tour de France, which was watched by three million spectators when it paid a visit to south-east England in 1994, could be heading for Sussex in the next few years.

London is mounting a million pound bid to host the start of the tour, possibly as early as 2006. The organisers of the tour say they are treating the bid with the utmost respect in view of the success of the 1994 visit when a stage finished on Brighton seafront.

The plan is for the prologue time trial to be held in central London over a course passing landmarks including Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Buckingham Palace.

The first massed start road stage would finish on The Mall after the riders have raced round a circuit in Essex.

The second stage would then cross Sussex via Haywards Heath to finish in Portsmouth, from where the riders and support vehicles would return by ferry to continue the race in France, just as they did in 1994.

London faces competition from other cities and towns to host the tour start, including Utrecht, Rotterdam and Lugano.

Even Quebec in Canada is bidding as the tour's global popularity increases.