Roe decides to take on the full seven-stage challenge

Despite being slightly weary after his emphatic victory in Sunday’s opener at Le Guet, Roe won both hill climb rounds at Pleinmont in the absence of main rival Mike Serafin.

On Monday’s ‘duphill’ sprint, featuring both downhill and uphill riding, the expert mountain biker clocked 2min. 23sec. to rustle up four seconds on advanced class rider John Mapley.

But he was more in his zone in the following day’s conventional hill climb and rode 2-22 to win by a huge 18 seconds over lead cyclocross rider Andy Colver.

‘The hill climb is one of my specialities and I just went out to win it,’ he said.

‘The round before that was the duphill, and that’s where the guys that come from a downhill background have an advantage.

‘When it’s a sole uphill and because of Serafin not being there – he would have run me close in a hill climb – the margin of victory probably looked quite large.’

The leader also caved in on his initial plan to pick and choose races, adding: ‘I’ll probably end up doing it all now – it’s good to support the local races.’

Although Roe already looks set to win the overall title, his rivals’ specialities mean that the next couple of rounds will certainly not be pushovers.

Serafin will likely make a strong showing at today’s criterium race, while tomorrow’s cyclocross-adapted course will be in Colver’s favour as he continues his CX division lead despite losing to Mapley on Monday.

Top woman Maddie Wilson was in unfamiliar territory for Monday’s duphill and lost points to Megan Dowinton, but edged Dowinton out by two seconds on Tuesday to take her second win of the series and increase her lead.

Ollie Domaille and Craig Goupillot have been a cut above the other riders in the under-14 and sport categories respectively and will maintain their lead with three victories each.

The remaining divisions appear somewhat less predictable as riders prepare for today’s criterium round, taking place from 6.30pm at Delancey.