Second place at a wintery cyclo-cross at Phoenix Bikes, Kentford, was enough to take Dickleburgh rider Kieran Jarvis to the top of the Eastern League.
At the end of a day which started with racing on a hard frost-bound surface, the seniors were faced with stretches of liquid mud on top of a frozen underlay.
James Madgwick (Bloodwise/QSW) led over the first two laps before eventual winner Stephen James (Renvale RT) asserted his authority.
James won by a good margin, but needs two more top results out of three remaining League races to challenge Jarvis, who currently heads the standings with 908 points to Seb Herrod's 902.
Consistent efforts mean that three other Norfolk riders are league leaders – Alison Hogg (Push Sport) heads the Women's League although Polly Mason (Iceni Velo) was eight seconds quicker at Kentford, Mason taking third place and Hogg fourth.
North Norfolk rider Connor Rumbles is top of the Junior League while Bethany Barnett (King's Lynn CC), category winner at Kentford, has no less than 100 points in hand at the top of the Youth Girls League.
The most exciting parts of Phoenix Bikes course are in a former sand pit and as the surface thawed the sound of sand grinding on disc brakes hit the ears.
Push Sport's Jason Bye was one of several competitors who completely wore out a set of brake pads in the course on just one hour's racing.
The Kentford 'cross was organised by Push Sport/Barford Van Hire and, pursuing their objective of getting people active and participating in sport, Push Sport ran the first of a short series of starter MTB races at Phoenix Bikes the day before the cyclo-cross.
The series returns to Kentford on Saturday, January 27 and will provide an excellent introduction to MTB racing - see www.pushsport.co.uk/aspire.
Information about the Christmas Day and Boxing Day fun time trials can be found on the East Anglian CC and CC Breckland websites – the former also including details of the EACC's classic 50 mile reliability trial which this year is on Sunday, January 7.
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