Ian Brown's XC Series Round 6 - La Pomare
Despite overnight rain the course at La Pomare proved to be fast and furious which allowed for some good battles through the slightly smaller than usual field of competitors.
In a different format, the elite and advanced groups started together and three Utmost Academy riders; Charlie Tourtel, Seth Davey and Zach Smith broke away from the rest of the field on the first lap. Tourtel made an early break on lap three pulling away to take his second consecutive victory. Lap four saw Seth Davey make a mistake which left Zach Smith alone to take an impressive second place. From that point Seth Davey, Adam Torode and the very experienced Mike Serafin were left to fight it out for third place with Adam Torode taking the final podium position ahead of Serafin and Davey.
Further down Utmost Academy rider Remi le Compte had a race long battle with James Shorto. They were caught late on by the fast charging veteran rider Pete Sargent who joined them on the final lap to cross the line ahead of Shorto and Remi and finish first Veteran too. Further down Mark Smith and Tristan Robilliard had solid rides to take second and third respectively in the veterans class and tenth & eleventh overall.
In the ladies Jamy Petit Fulgoni took the honours with a solid ride from Frankie Middlton.
The race of the day was in the shorter U14s race where Freddie Martel took an early lead from the ever-improving Luka Robilliard. By mid-race Robillard was pushing hard and eventually took the lead to take the win from Martel. Behind there were some individual battles with places changing through the race - Harry Manning taking third spot with his brother Archie in fourth.
Special mention to young Academy Holly Smith who rode a great race despite the technical course. On the shorter U10s and U12s course Jacob Piercey took honours from Humphrey Brimson in the U12 and Hugo Johnson took the win over Ethan Shorto. In the female race Sophia Fulgoni took the honours. Next weekend the Utmost Academy travel as a team of 12 to the New Forest Southern XC. In total there will be 25 Guernsey riders from all age categories taking part.
Written by Adrian Tourtel
