Steve Millington sent out a warning on Sunday that he's the man to beat.

In the fourth race of the season at Southside, on a day when the Island was buffetted by strong winds, and over a tough, hilly course, it was clear that only the strongest would survive in what would turn out to be a war of attrition.

Right from the starter's gun, riders attacked off the front and within two laps of the 12-lap, 2.5 mile course for the top riders, the field had splintered under the pressure as the strong headwind took its toll.

Category Three rider Jonathan Herring followed an attack by Greg Hopkins and then continued solo to open up a gap on the field by the fourth lap. Content to leave him out front to battle the elements alone, the lead pack of about 10 riders settled into a pace, keeping Herring in sight until two laps later when Millington blasted off the front with youngster Tyler Butterfield the only rider to react.

The two quickly closed the gap on Herring as they left the chase pack behind.

After a number of surges by Butterfield, Herring was forced to drop off the pace and rejoined the chase group which now consisted of Mike Lee, Ted Temple, Julia Hawley, Greg Hopkins and veteran Vic Ball who was on an inspired ride as he stayed with the lead pack.

On the next lap Butterfield was also dropped by Millington and rejoined the chasing pack.

With Ball finishing at 10 laps to take honours for the fourth time this season in the veterans category, and Hopkins able to sit in with team-mate Millington in the lead, the remaining riders jockeyed for position in what was clearly going to be a race for second place.

It was Butterfield who orchestrated the finishing order with three strong attacks on the last hilly section of the course as he split the pack with Hopkins and Herring joining him as they broke away from Lee, Temple and Hawley.

With Millington taking victory uncontested, Butterfield had just enough left to outsprint Herring to take first and second in Category Three with Hopkins coming in fourth overall for second in Category Two. Temple outsprinted Lee as those riders finished in third in their respective categories and fifth and sixth overall.

Paul Shrubb and Paulo Medeiros were second and third behind Ball in the veterans category in 1:13.14 and 1:15.55 respectively. Novice Francois Bertrand placed first in that category.

The women's race was a close affair with Wenda Godfrey finally breaking clear of Jeana Godfrey in the final sprint to finish in 1:00.09 and 1:00.12 respectively in their eight-lap, 20-mile race, while Allison Petty, on a visit from school abroad, took third in 1:15.50.

In the junior categories, Matthew Herring continued to dominate the 13-14 age group, winning the 20-mile race in a time of 59.15 with Adam Petty three minutes behind in 1:02.20 and James Adams third in 1:05.14.

Other category winners were Kim Mason in the female veterans, Yolanda Smith in the 17-18 girls, Ashley Robinson Roberts in the 15-16 girls, Chris Conway in the boys 15-16, Flora Duffy in the 13-14 girls and Desmond Trott in the 11-12 boys.

Ricky Sousa outsprinted Tim Fox in a hard fought battle in the boys under 10 race. There are two remaining races for riders to qualify for an invitation for the Sinclair Packwood race on May 24, which requires locally based riders to compete in three races prior to the May 24 event.