at Great Head Park on Sunday as he brought in the new Millennium with a spectacular victory in mountain biking.

Sterritt raced to victory in 48 minutes, 10 seconds and lapped the entire field at least once in the process.

Second placed Peter Matcham was a full lap plus 58 seconds behind Sterritt, with former triathlon champion Neil de Ste Croix finishing third a further minute and 32 seconds back.

National road team rider Kris Hedges, in his first race of the season, managed a fourth place finish despite riding with a major mechanical problem for the duration of the race.

Paulo Madeiros continued his domination of the veterans category, taking his fourth cross country victory comfortably in a time of 36.04, almost two and a half minutes up on second placed Mark Edmunds. Graham Smith edged out Ian Fox by just 19 seconds for third place in 39.14.

Karen Madeiros overhauled early race leader Sheila Ruse and managed to hold her off over the final three laps to take her fourth victory of the season too, the margin of victory being just 19 seconds over Ruse at the finish.

Junior female rider Ashley Robinson Roberts had another good race, finishing one lap back of the senior women riders in 37.59.

In the junior 15-16s, Chris Conway led from start to finish for another win, his time of 34.12 was, however, just 27 seconds over second placed Mark Morrison who pushed John Neil into third place by just two seconds. Nick Taylor finished close behind the top three in 36.24.

Adam Petty, competing for the first time this season, easily took the junior 13-14 category in a time of 38.37, lapping the other riders. James Adams managed to hold on to a short lead over Jeremy Shrubb for second place with Geoffrey Smith rounding out the top four in a time of 39.14. Tim Fox's victory in the 10 and under category was made a lot easier by the absence of rival Ricky Sousa Jr. His winning time of 35.28 was over four minutes faster than second placed Alex McManus.