Emery hits the front as rain juices up the paths

THE Sunday afternoon thunderstorms made the cliff paths treacherous in places as the All Terrain series moved to Icart for stage two and yielded a new leader.

Dave Emery initially watched Matt Loveridge, wearing the yellow vest, and young George Mason hare away, but the 28-year-old kept in touch and by the end of the punishing five-mile race had opened a half-minute lead to snatch 'yellow' from Loveridge going into this evening's notorious Telegraph Bay step climb.

Emery, who crossed the line in 33min. 34sec., played down his chances of overall victory, but on this performance he will be a strong contender for the overall title.

'Matt took it out for the first half to Jerbourg,' he said afterwards. 'George was second but I overtook him at halfway and went past Matt on the first set of steps from Moulin Huet. It was pretty slippery and I slipped a couple of times on the corners.'

Emery now has an overall lead of 21sec.