Top juniors Geoffrey Burns and Tim Fox battled again in race seven of the Conrad?s Mountain Bike Series at the weekend, with Burns emerging triumphant.

On a dry, fast Fort Scaur course, Burns made an early surge and then held off Fox, the reigning Downhill champion, to take victory and move five points clear of his rival in the fight for the 15-16 series title.

Fox will now have to sweep the remaining two races to clinch the overall win.

Meanwhile, Garth Thomson used a mid-race surge to comfortably win the Open Men?s race and assure himself of the Open points series title.

An interesting race developed for second place as Neil De St. Croix held off late charges from both Mark Hatherley and Dave Padega.

Padega had the hard luck story of the day as he made a frantic surge to catch Hatherley only to have his pedal break seconds from the finish, allowing Hatherley to sneak in for third place.

All will look to challenge Thomson this Sunday as the trio are separated by just five points in the series standings.

Grant Goudge looked strong in his final race of the season, while veterans Geoff Wing and Rolf Runkel were pushed by top female Kim McMullen.

Paul Jacks took advantage of a Fred Swan crash to win his second Intermediate race of the series. Jacks? win pushed him back into a tie with Swan at the top of the category.

Ed Jordan rode to his best finish of the season, placing fourth just ahead of nemesis Ian Fox and Karl Outerbridge.

Jeff Amaral looked to swipe his first win of the season in the Novices category only to have series rookie David Day trump him.

Cameron Madeiros was again third with a solid effort while Sarah Jordan overcame a crash and mechanical troubles to take the female Novices win.

While Alex Godfrey again looked strong in his 13-14 group win, David Lunn jr put the pressure on his competitors with his third straight 11-12 victory.

With the win, Lunn moved to fourth in the point series, trailing Mark Godfrey (third) and second-placed Neil Dante Wilson by just 10 points.

Series leader Nathan Amaral has a stranglehold on the points lead.

Ryan Day?s second-place finish vaulted him past Justin Ferreira in the Under-10 boys? division with this week?s winner, Josh Robinson, now nipping at his heels.

Josh Stephenson?s third-place finish brought him into striking distance for overall category honours.

Elizabeth Jordan beat Courtney Day in their first head to head meeting in the under-10 girls.

Action this Sunday is at Admiralty House, starting at 8.30 a.m.