This Is Guernsey

A trio of riders power up a hill at a muddy Vassalerie course. (Picture by Les Perry, 0559305)

ROB SMART maintained his good form in the mud at La Vassalerie to claim an impressive elite victory.

Soggy conditions met nearly 40 riders for the second event in the Ian Brown and Arrowsmith Marlowe Mountain Bike Series.

The course had been heavily rained on over the previous few days and conditions were far from ideal, with several steep climbs proving hard to negotiate in the slippery conditions. The first categories of the day to complete the course were the sports, under-16s and under-14s.

Sports rider Adam Sunderland took the overall victory, leading the race from start to finish, although he was closely followed by Tim Luscombe, who put in a spirited fight to take several places in the final few laps.

James Mapley was third followed by Phil Setters, Anthony Renouf and Jamie Falla.

The under-16s’ race was a tight affair with Callum Hill-Smith the early leader. With only a few laps remaining, it looked as though he was going to hold off the challenge of Alistair Martin, who had fought back to close the gap.

However, in those laps Martin managed to overhaul Hill-Smith to take the category, with Alex Wilson third and James Gardner fourth.

The under-14s’ category has slowly been building in size over recent races. With six riders competing, it was Alex Falla who took the victory and who also managed to beat many of the sports and under-16 riders in the process.

Michael Mann took an impressive second place, beating riders who are several years older. Will Falla took third closely followed by Alex Martin, the only girl rider Juliette Setters and newcomer Josh Hunter.

With the early race over and the course cut up it was the elite, advanced and veteran riders’ turn to tackle it.

After the usual frantic start and battle for places, Smart took an early lead over Josh Gosselin, who had only recently returned from three months’ racing in New Zealand, and Matt Osborn.

Slightly further back a group including Gary Robert, Philip Touzeau, Leon Ogier, Jon Osborn and advanced riders Jamie Burtenshaw and John Mapley were trying to close the gap to the leaders.

Back at the front Smart had opened up a substantial gap between himself and Gosselin, which he continued to extend, lapping virtually every other racer to take the victory.

Gosselin finished in second followed by Matt Osborn, Robert, Jon Osborn, Touzeau, Ogier and Owen.

Burtenshaw took the advanced category, being in fourth place overall when he finished. John Mapley was second closely followed by Andy Gibson, Craig Addlesee, Ben Walden and Geoff Gibson, who had a very close battle for third.

Steve James was seventh followed by Aiden Stanford and Chris Carter.

Nick Mann was once again the veteran to beat taking the victory in his category.

It seems as though relative newcomer to mountain bike racing Tim Martin could be the one to challenge Mann as he finished in second with Andy Wilson third and Paul Setters fourth.