National Mountain Bike Championships at Ferry Point Park on Sunday, lifting the eight-race series title in the process.

But it was only the misfortune of teenager Tyler Butterfield, who earlier in the morning had finished second in a 5K road race, that allowed Hill to cross the line first.

Having dropped Hill and other rivals late in the race, Butterfield suffered a puncture, changed bikes, and then suffered yet another flat tyre on the next lap to kill off his victory hopes.

In almost perfect conditions, 25 riders lined up for the start with nearly all of the top riders in the open division present to tackle a tough, technical course, designed by series organiser Duncan Simons, which took them on seven draining laps around a two-mile loop.

Simons, himself a previous race winner, battled it out with Hill and other race winners in the series, Steve Sterritt and Peter Matcham.

The riders set off at a furious pace from the gun with the leaders jockeying for position in the early stages, stringing out the field from the start.

By the end of the first lap it was Simons, Hill and Matcham in that order with Sterritt, recovering from a motor cycle crash earlier in the week, missing as he got off to a cautious start.

But as the race started to settle into a battle between these three, another factor came into play ...in the form of Butterfield.

The 15-year-old Saltus student, who had opted to ride in the open division instead of his junior age group, joined the leaders by the end of lap two, having made up a deficit of about 40 seconds on the first lap.

Suddenly the young triathlete was looking to be a threat as one after another, the four riders pushed the pace.

By lap four the race took a whole new look as Butterfield appeared to take charge with only Hill matching his relentless effort. Simons, clearly feeling under the weather, dropped out and Matcham found himself on his own chasing the two leaders with the field left to contest the minor placings.

By the end of the fourth lap, Butterfield had thrown down the gauntlet and held a clear lead over a game Hill. And the youngster seemed to be stretching his lead until disaster struck.

As the crowd watched, expecting to see Butterfield come through the start-finish area in the lead, it was in fact Hill who emerged first as Butterfield ran into sight pushing his bike with a flat tyre.

After a quick change he was off again, only to have the same thing happen again on the next lap which gave a hard-chasing Matcham the chance to move into second.

The time lost was too much for Butterfield to make up and Hill took victory in one hour, 16 minutes, 52 seconds.

Matcham was second in 1:20.38 and a smiling Butterfield third in 1:21.03.

Jahdal Williams won the 17-18 division in both the championships in 1:32.14 and the series as did Brian Steinhoff in the 15-16 age group who finished his six-mile race in 35.07. Adam Petty won the boys 13-14 in 42.16 with second place Matthew Herring securing the series title.

In the boys 11-12, over four miles, Geoffrey Smith was first in a time of 31.04, winning both the championship and series, as did Tim Fox in the under 10 group in 36.25.

TYLER BUTTERFIELD -- victory hopes dashed by two punctures.