With a bright and early start, the South African time trial championships took place around the Mbombela Stadium streets this morning. Defending champion Daryl Impey (Orica-Greenedge) was successfully able to defend his title from last year, clocking the fastest time of 53'23" on the day.

Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Louis Meintjes and Jay Thomson all start in the race against the clock today. All 3 riders put in strong performances to claim the next 3 placing’s on the result sheet. Van Rensburg secured the silver medal while Meintjs took home the bronze.

The cool early morning conditions made for super-fast times, with Impey able to average 48km/h for the 42.7km course. The attention now turns to Saturday's road race where we will hope to defend our title over the 180km parcours.

"The time trial went alright today," van Rensburg said. "Maybe I started out a little bit too fast because it really started to hurt near the end but I'm satisfied with the result. It was my first time competing in the TT Champs again after winning the title in 2012. Obviously you always want to win but Daryl was just super strong so I can’t complain."