before watching the conclusion of the fight for second place amongst four riders during latest mountain bike racing at Admiralty House Park on Sunday.

Sterritt was almost five minutes ahead of the next rider, so commanding was his lead at the finish.

Pater Matcham, who was second to Sterritt three times this season, watched his slim lead over a chasing group of three all but evaporate by the eighth of 10 laps, but then disaster struck the chasing group.

Kris Hedges, Neil de Ste Croix and Paul Livingston all got caught up in a bottle neck of slower riders, allowing Matcham to pull ahead again by about 20 seconds. Hedges managed to catch Matcham with one lap to go and they were still together at the top of the final climb with only 350 yards to go when Matcham's stomach decided to take an untimely 20-second time out, giving Hedges a more comfortable second place finish in a time of 45.03.

Matcham managed to collect himself quickly enough to carry on and finish third in 45.24 with de Ste Croix just edging out Livingston by one second in 45.53 to take fourth.

Paulo Madeiros is going to need the rumoured participation of Greg Hopkins to put any pressure on his title aspirations in the veterans category, after easily taking his fifth cross-country victory of the season in a time of 37.01, five minutes up on second placed Ian Fox.

Graham Smith was unable to finish after an early crash, while Sheila Ruse took advantage of the absence of Karen Madeiros to grab her first victory in a time of 46.07.

Geoffrey Smith reversed last weekend's result with a strongwin over Adam Petty and the rest of the field in the 14-15 category. Smith's time, 36.47, was 2.27 ahead of Petty who survived a crash to finish second, just 28 seconds ahead of third-placed Matthew Herring.

Travaughn Smith had a close victory in the junior 15-16 category , his time of 35.09 only 16 seconds better than second-placed John Neil with Jean-Nicholas Bertrand just 33 seconds back.

Tim Fox was too good again in the 10 and unders, finishing in 31.48, over five minutes up on Ricky Sousa Jr and Alex McManus.

Aaron Fenn finished his five laps in the 11-12 category in 40.36 to take another first place. Andre Bassett also suffered a crash but took the novice category.