Brighton Mitre riders Tristan Court and Jay Chisnall were among an international field of 760 who took part in the Duo Normand race meeting at Marigny in Normandy.

A crowd of 10,000 watched various events and the riders included leading professionals, plus national and regional amateur champions.

In the amateur time trial event for two-man teams, Court and Chisnall recorded 1hr.29min.30sec.

World stars from past and present were there and Court and Chisnall were introduced to Eddy Merckx, legendary Belgian, five-times winner of the Tour de France and arguably the greatest rider of all time, plus Britain's Chris Boardman, the former world and Olympic champion.

Crawley ace Steve Elms (In Gear) finished second in the Surrey League's 15-mile time trial near Billingshurst, which was won by former national champion Richard Prebble (Team Clean) from Farnham. Prebble clocked 34min.7sec and Elms 34min.48sec.

Elms said: "I could have gone faster but as I was approaching a corner early on I saw another rider had just crashed.

"Although it was sunny the roads were still wet in places from the recent rain. From then on I played it safe and took the corners much slower than I normally do."

Dave Shepherd (Rother Valley), the Sussex 12-hour champion, finished fifth in 36min.30sec and Bruce Griffiths (In Gear) was sixth in 36min.34sec.

On Sunday, Lewes Wanderers have a two-up time trial at Laughton (9am) and the East Sussex CC have a cyclo-cross meeting at Deers Leap Park which includes the first round of the Sussex Cyclo-Cross League (1pm).

Jonathan Sharpe (Cycleweb-Saucony), the reigning Sussex cyclo-cross champion, warmed up by taking seventh place in the Hounslow Wheelers open event.