Naval Air Station when he captured the national time trial championship to add to his Bermuda Grand Prix win in May.

Hopkins, who holds the local record for the 15, 25 and 37-mile distances, has dominated time trials on the Island for more than seven years, rarely suffering defeat in what is regarded as the toughest of cycling events.

Known in the cycling world as "the race of truth'', riders are set off at intervals with only the clock to beat.

Sunday's championship for the open category was over a five-lap, 28.3 mile course in hot and humid conditions with a crosswind making life even more difficult for the riders.

With competitors seeded based on their time trial performances so far this season, unbeaten Hopkins went off last, a minute behind Tim Palmer and a further minute behind in-form Mike Lee who was expected to mount the biggest challenge.

Within two laps Hopkins had already pulled back Palmer who was struggling to find his form in the early stages. Lee, however, was proving to be tough competition, as expected, and only gave up some 15 seconds a lap in the first two laps.

It was then that Lee, who was a convincing winner in last week's 53-mile road race, started to tire and was finally caught by Hopkins on the last lap.

At the finish, Hopkins recorded a time of one hour, nine minutes and six seconds, averaging a strong 24.57 miles per hour on his way to the title. Lee finished second, two minutes and three seconds behind.

The surprise of the day was the impressive performance of Sinclair Packwood, more noted for his sprinting prowess as he clinched third spot in probably his best time trial, another 58 seconds down on Lee.

Palmer appeared to have misjudged his pacing of the event, as he finished very strongly in the final laps. However, by then it was too late to pull back enough time and he had to settle for fourth place in a time of one hour, 12 minutes, 36 seconds. Jon Hateley rounded out the top five with a time of 1:14.43.

In the veterans category, Richard Mason continued his fine form and despite a flat tyre half way through he still recorded an impressive 1:15.22, a full five minutes and 12 seconds ahead of John Plested. Jeremy Ball was third in 1:20.41.

In the women's division, Melanie Claude was in devastating form as she beat a strong field, completing the 11.3 mile course in 29 minutes, 37 seconds while averaging 22.8 miles per hour. Claude beat out second placed Shona Palmer by two minutes and one second. Maggie Hateley was third in 32 minutes and one second.

In the juniors it was Kris Hedges who defeated arch rival Duncan Simons, clocking 29:44 and 30:08 respectively with Jonathon Herring taking third in 34:16. Lone junior III rider Matthew Herring took his category title in a time of 44:16.

GREG HOPKINS -- second major victory this year.