Smart benefits from Carling's bad luck

ROB SMART took advantage of Jimmy Carling's misfortune to pedal well clear of the elite field in round four of the Guernsey Velo Club mountain bike summer series. The testing Talbot Valley course had everything to keep the riders on their toes: lightning-fast descents, short, sharp climbs and tricky single track between the trees.

Many a rider parted company with their machine on more than one occasion.

The 14-lap elite event was full of incidents right from the start.

Carling raced into an early lead, hotly pursued by Smart.

But only four minutes into the initial lap, Carling suffered a mechanical problem, resulting in a wheel change; this left Smart the clear leader.

With his wheel replaced, Carling rejoined at the back of the field three minutes down on Smart.

Carling still had his sights on at least the runner-up spot and was off in pursuit of his rivals.

He was soon working his way through the field and closing in on Tobyn Horton in third and Nick Mann who was second, despite a huge crash.

With only a few laps to go, he caught both but there was no catching Smart who extended his lead to just over six minutes in a time of

1-24-39.

Mann held onto third with Horton fourth and Stuart Le Tissier fifth.

The advanced race was over 10 laps and Mike Serafin romped away from the field early on and never looked back. He crossed the line in

1-08-30, a comfortable winner.

John Mapley was looking good for second spot until Garry Coutanche crept up on him on the last few laps to sneak past and take the runner-up spot, just 11 seconds clear.

The sports race was once again won convincingly by Jack Sunderland, who lapped all fellow competitors on his way to victory. Jon Dorey came home second with Simon Falla third.

Josh Owen won the under-16s by just over a minute from the fast-improving Matt Osborn in second and Peter Lee in third, while Nathan Baudains claimed victory in the under-14s from Gary Robert in second and James Mapley in third.

Robert Paul took the honours in the under-12s' short-course race and Alex Falla won the under-10s' equivalent in 9-32.

George Payne again won the under-8s' event from William Falla in second and Ben Le Page in third.