A HOMEGROWN super cyclist has his sights set on further glory this year after being named world champion in 2014.

Kingsmead dad-of-three Lee Suthard won gold in the UCI World Track Masters for the 3km pursuit in his age group in October.

This year the 41-year-old wants to retain his title and also go for the national 10-mile time trial championships in August, which are open to professional and non-professional cyclists of all age groups.

"I'm trying to get a qualifying time for that now so I've only just started to do some open time trial races," he said.

"To guarantee qualification you need to get a really fast time, really you need under 20 minutes to make sure you definitely qualify."

Lee, who opened this year's Pedal Power Festival alongside Northwich's mayor Cllr Andy Stott, has already broken the Weaver Valley Cycling Club course record on its club 10, completing the 10-mile route in 21 minutes and 25 seconds on Wednesday.

"Two weeks ago I did a club 10 and did 22 minutes and 35 seconds but I hadn't fully got into real power training mode," he said.

"I've been really putting the effort in and you can see the difference – in two weeks I've knocked one minute and 10 seconds off my time and taken 25 seconds off the course record."

In a time trial a cyclist takes on a certain distance and races against the clock rather than against an opponent.

Racing against the elements can also prove an obstacle.

"The thing with time trialling is the wind, especially a side wind or a head wind," Lee said.

"You never get as much advantage from a tail wind as you might think.

"I'm hoping for nice still days."

Lee had a 14-year break from cycling after training with the likes of Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins in 1996 in a bid to be selected for the Sydney Olympics.

He returned to track cycling in January last year.

"I'm probably as fast as I was 15 years ago," he said.

"I'm getting about the same times and the same power as well.

"To think that at 25 I was producing that amount of power, now I'm 41, crikey, I must be doing something right."

This year Lee has also won sponsorship from High5 Sports Nutrition, which has provided him with nutrition and kit, ISM saddles, Planet X, Stages power meters and Garmin.

"I now have the minimum I need to compete competitively," he said.

"I'm not a professional cyclist, I'm not part of the UCI team, I have a job as well but I'm really enjoying it and it's good to be on better kit than I've ever ridden before."