JERSEY’S NatWest Island Games mountain bikers Robin Ovenden, Kieron Mills and James Patterson, along with reserve Adam Wojkiewicz achieved some promising results in the second round of the British XC Mountain bike series at Sherwood Park, Nottingham.
The riders were faced with a highly technical route that threaded its way through 11.1 km of fast flowing, natural, twisting singletrack with logs to jump and soul-sapping sticky sections that required competitors to keep their wits about them while travelling at speed to avoid the dreaded tree to body interface.
In the first race, James Patterson found his recent illnesses caught up with him in the expert class but he pulled through to finish 36th.
The other three riders were in the highly competitive masters class which featured 77 starters and a torrential downpour mid race which turned the course quickly into a mud bath.
This played to Mills’ strengths and he finished in a personal best position of 8th while Ovenden suffered mechanical problems and finished 16th.
Meanwhile Wojkiewicz, who has only been on the road for a few months, finished strongly with a solid placing of 39th.
All four featured in the next day’s 50 km Enduro race and came up against 88 others on what was still a wet course.
Mills again hushed his critics riding to another personal best of fourth - using his mud tackling skills and controlled aggressive riding he seemed to get faster throughout the race, lapping up the bike and body wrecking course with ease.
Patterson rode solidly, finishing 17th, even after delays with a major mechanical problem on the last lap threatened to put him out of the race while mechanical issues thwarted Ovenden and Wojkiewicz’ progress as they both suffered terminal problems on lap two.
The four now travel to Margham Park, South Wales for the next round of the series and will be joined by junior Rhys Hidrio for the next race in June.
Article posted on 19th May, 2007 - 12.00am
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