The eighth of nine races in the Flying Colours Mountain Bike Race Series at Ferry Reach at the weekend was a battle of riders trying to maintain their position at the top of the standings as others fought to make a late charge for the honours.

In the top Male A category, 16-year-old Matthew Oliviera was coming off a Did Not Finish in the last race at Fort Scaur and was clearly looking for redemption as he set his trademark aggressive start with a “stay with me if you can” attitude.

It was not long before it became obvious that barring a crash or mechanical problem, nobody would be able to, as he began to pull away from a strong field.

Kaden Hopkins, clearly getting stronger with each event, led the chase of five riders with Dylan Hill, Deshi Smith, Chequan Richardson, and Gary Raynor all in a line trying to limit Oliviera’s lead.

After the third lap, the chasers were down to four as Hill dropped out citing fatigue.

By this time Oliviera was clearly in a time-trial mode edging further ahead on each lap of the 50-minute race. Hopkins was now alone in second and was clocking consistent times lap after lap while Richardson and Raynor battled each other all the way for the third spot on the podium.

At the finish Oliviera and Hopkins came in uncontested for the top two places, as Richardson who had finally managed to shed Raynor came in third.

In the male veterans category, the series leader Hans Hirschi was in no mood to relinquish any points, and with his closest rival, Dexter Swan, not racing it looked unlikely that there would be any threat to his dominance of the category.

By the end of the first lap he had already opened up a gap of 16 seconds over Chris Roque, a gap that would continuously grow as the race progressed despite a spirited ride from Roque, with Peter Dunne chasing in third. Hirschi went on to record his seventh win of the season, Roque came in second and Dunne third.

Once again the largest field was the Male B category. A win would have all but guaranteed Adam Kirk the series win, but in what has proved to be the most competitive races this season, there were others who had different ideas.

Arthur Pitcher, who appeared to struggle a little on the technical downhill race at Fort Scaur, where Kirk was the clear winner, set the early pace opening up a small but important gap over the rest which gave him a clear run at the course.

It was Kirk who at first appeared to be the one who could close him down, but as the race progressed, both Andrew Hern and Christian Oatley patiently bided their time eventually reeling in a tiring Kirk and then continuing to work into the lead of Pitcher.

Despite managing to close the gap, Pitcher held onto his lead with Hern pulling away from Oatley to take second spot, Oatley was third and Kirk fourth with just 30 seconds separating the top four.

Kirk now holds a one-point lead in the series with the final event at Fort Scaur in two weeks.

In the Male Novice category, Chase Toogood returned to the winner’s circle after a strong performance in which he took a lead on the first lap.

Chris Hands also had an impressive ride for second place and youngster Ziani Burgesson continued his run of top placing to take third.

Ashley Robinson, Tristan Narraway and Cassy McPhee were the top three in the Female B event. The top rider all season Alyssa Rowse was disqualified after a rule infraction following a mechanical problem.

Jennifer Wilson was a clear winner in the Women’s Novice ahead of Kim Raymond and Andrea Proctor.

In a tremendous battle in the Boys 13-15 Nick Pilgrim overcame Alex Miller for the win with Jacob Estis third.

Just six seconds separated the top three. In the two youngest categories, the under-12 boys and girls, Ahzai Smith, Enshe-Nico Davis and Tommy Marshall were the top boys and Megan Hands, Zoe Hasselkuss, and Jasmin Hasselkuss the girls.