Carling collects bronze

JIMMY CARLING won a bronze medal and was the most successful of eight Guernsey riders who made the long journey to Suffolk to race in round one of mountain biking's national points series. The course was mainly flat with two-thirds of the course in Thetford Forest, the other third being along fire roads linking the sections.

In the opening youth race Guernsey was represented by Jimmy Carling and Dan Owen. Carling , a seeded rider, flew away from the start line on the first of his three laps to lead the group into the first section of singletrack. Owen had a disastrous start when mechanical problems saw him leave the start field at the back of the pack.

Carling eased off the pace to allow other riders to take up the workload on the front and at the end of lap one the young Guernseyman was in second position 20 seconds behind the leader.

Owen was picking up places with ease as he worked his way back through the pack.

Carling was joined by another rider on lap two and the pair worked together in an attempt to reel in the leader.

But the pace-setter was not to be caught as he extended his lead throughout, to leave Carling fighting for second place.

As the riders came into view for the last time Carling was a few bike lengths behind and was unable to claw back the deficit, crossing the line in third place, equalling his best result from last year.

Further mechanical problems did not deter Owen, who came home in 16th overall, a great result considering his problems.

Tom Sherwill in the juniors, Nick Mann in the masters and Mick Owen in the veterans were the next Sarnians to race, all racing over four laps of the course.

Sherwill rode excellently as he broke away from a group of riders on lap three to move into fourth place starting his last lap.

Cramp and a mechanical problem caused him to lose one place on the final lap and finish in fifth spot.

Eighty-two riders, including Mann, blasted away from the start in the masters race. Mann worked his way through the pack, gaining places on each lap to record his best result by far in placing a very respectable 25th overall.

Veteran Owen found the going tough, but managed to complete the course in two hours 31 minutes and 11 seconds to finish in 38th place.

Pete Miller rode in the sports race over three laps of the course and, like Mann, he worked his way through the field to place 22nd overall out of the 47 starters.

Expert riders Chris Le Page and Rob Smart took on five laps of the course.

The duo were split by only seven seconds after lap one.

Lap two saw Smart up in 11th place chasing hard to catch the group of riders battling for sixth spot.

At this stage Le Page was still in touch 30 seconds back.

But a reoccurrence of his back injury saw Smart retire from the race at the end of lap three and Le Page's own back problems caused him to lose time over the last three laps and finish in 16th overall in two hours 35 minutes and 19 seconds.