Cool Carling bides time

JIMMY CARLING made it a hat-trick of silver medals in the mountain bike cross country event on the challenging Busta Farm course near Brae last night. He rode a tactically astute race over seven laps of a tricky 3km course in windy and drizzly conditions.

Rob Smart's fifth place guaranteed the team silver.

The Isle of Man's untouchable Andrew Roche notched his sixth gold of the Games as he finished 33 sec. ahead of the mud spattered 18-year-old Carling with Jersey's James Patterson a further 11 sec. back.

A long and winding climb through heather, shallow ditches, short grass and rocks combined with peat beds proved an immensely tough challenge for the 16 riders.

As they approached the summit about 500m above the gravel start and finish area, they had to deal with adverse cambers and pick their way through boulders and stones.

After a loop of the summit on the skyline, they had to navigate their way through a very technical and bumpy descent off the rough craig and down through coarse heather on to undulating grassland.

The course had never been ridden before and the organisers had to get the farmer to cut a path through his silage crop and create a gap in his fence to gain entry into his fields.

'It's extremely difficult and with the rain we have had the course is quite soggy, said cycling co-ordinator Alec Simm. 'There is no easy part and the rolling section leading to the climb is very slippy,' he said.

At the end of the first lap, Patterson led with Roche, Carling and Smart hot on his tail, but by the end of lap two, the first three had formed a breakaway with Jersey's Kieron Mills and Smart falling a minute behind.

The expressions on the riders' faces on lap four showed they were really starting to hurt and when the marker indicating two laps to go went up, Roche had raced into the sizeable lead.

There was no catching him as he finished in a time of 1 hr 5min 49sec, but Carling won the all-CI battle for silver.

'It was pretty hard and not normally the sort of course I would do well on but I managed to get into a rhythm,' said a delighted Carling.

'I decided to start slowly and watch everybody else. It was key to tuck in behind someone and shelter from the wind. The three of us broke away and I saved myself for the last lap. I knew ?Rochey? was going to go off and I broke away on the climb and got my second silver so I'm happy,' he said.

Smart was bitterly disappointed wiith his showing having declared before the start that it was his kind of conditions.

'I felt fine on the first lap and quite comfortable with the other four guys but on the second lap there was nothing left at all. I have felt really good this week. It's just not my day,' said Smart.

'I knew the guy from the Isle of Man was coming up and to get team silver I had to really dig in.'

The course proved to be a nightmare for Chris Le Page who was forced out after three laps.

'It's hideous out there and is unrideable in places. There are patches of mud about a foot deep and your wheels just slip in it. The guys in the front are pretty awesome,' he said.

'It's bitterly cold at the top with a strong wind and it's unbelievably bad conditions and one of the worst courses I have ridden.'

The handlebars of Jon Osborn's bike's came loose as he started the last lap and after tightening them he soldiered on to finish 14th with Guernsey's other rider, Nick Mann, two places ahead.