Bibby turns attention to road race, Massaro and Birch progress

Going off as the penultimate rider and the last man with a realistic shot at a medal, the 31-year-old from Preston was among the fastest three riders at the first two checkpoints.

But issues with his gears at the summit of the second climb led to the JLT-Condor rider dropping down the timesheet.

He eventually came home ninth, completing the 38.5km course in a time of 50:43.88 - 2:30.84 behind eventual Australian winner Cameron Meyer.

The bronze medallist at last year’s national road race championships and 2015 winner of the National Circuit Championship, Bibby went into the race as a potential medallist.

“I started off alright but had a few mechanicals. One at the top of the climb but then it kept coming off at the front a bit as well - that’s life,” he said.

“It’s hard to tell how I was feeling in the time trial because I’ve not done too many of them, but I think the legs are alright for the road race and I’m keen to get stuck into that now on Saturday.

“The climbs were alright so for the road race it should be good.

“We’ve not it too much but we’ve got Adam [Blythe], myself and Tom Stewart who has been going really well, too.”

Elsewhere, Laura Massaro began her quest for a first Commonwealth Games women’s doubles squash gold medal with a comfortable Pool B victory over the Cayman Islands’ Eilidh Bridgeman and Caroline Laing.

The Preston player and women’s singles silver medallist Sarah-Jane Perry eased to an 11-2 11-2 victory in just ten minutes.

It was a similar story for Chloe Birch in the first round of the women’s badminton singles as she beat South Africa’s Johanita Scholtz 21-5 21-8 in 20 minutes.

While Felicity Pickard also made a strong start in the TT6-10 women’s table tennis singles, topping Group A after one match with an 11-0 11-2 11-2 win over Papua New Guinea’s Vero Nime.

Finally in the pool Holly Hibbott made up for the disappointment of finishing fourth in the 800m freestyle by taking silver over 400m, with compatriot and roommate Ellie Faulkner in bronze.

She said: “After last night's fourth to come out and get a silver medal I was really happy with that. It's great to have someone on the team get the bronze as last night Australia getting 1-2-3 wasn't great so getting a silver and bronze for Team England is great.”

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