half-way in the standings in the men's time trial at the inaugural World Cycling B championships in Malaysia yesterday.

The 58-year-old, threatened with expulsion by race officials after they saw the date of birth on his entry form, finished 19th out of a field of 36 in the 40.3K event in Ipoh, 100 miles north of Kuala Lumpur.

His time of 56:04 put him just over six minutes behind winner Sergey Deravianov, of Kyrgyztan, in a competition dominated by the countries created by the break-up of the old Soviet Union.

National cycling coach Greg Hopkins said: "It's an excellent result, especially after they were not going to let him race, but it's pretty much what we'd expect and he didn't embarrass himself. We're over the moon.'' He was also delighted by the performance of team-mate Steve Sterritt. His real strength lies in the 146K road race scheduled for Wednesday, and he only competed because Mike Lee was forced to sit out the event after suffering a mild bout of food poisoning during the exhausting two-day trip to the venue.

But Sterritt came in just 59 seconds behind Payne to claim a creditable 23rd place.

"He would not have prepared specifically for this event,'' Hopkins said, "although his results in this category late in the season were excellent.

"His performance bodes well for the road race.'' Conditions for the championship -- which was introduced by the International Cycling Federation to bring out new talent and excludes the top 12 cycling nations -- were said to be tough with temperatures in the 90s and very high humidity.

The Bermudian team are in Ipoh at least in part to get experience of the courses which will be used for the cycling events in next September's Commonwealth Games.