MALVERN Cycle Sport scored a stunning four first places at the Midlands Championships for cross-country mountain bike racing.

Hattie Harnden won the juvenile female race by 18 minutes, while Sophie Fennel dominated the expert female event.

Ross Harnden led from the start to win the youth male category as did David Creber in the expert race.

The flat and fast 6.8-kilometre course was less technically demanding than usual but required constant effort with little opportunity to rest.

Crashing was limited to a few slips on a muddy section rather than headlong dives downhill.

Just missing out on podium finishes with fourth places were Jack Bristow (under-10s), Bob Harnden (under-13s) and Nathan Rigby-Howard (juniors).

Young Tom Bristow did well to finish 13th in the under-10s.

In the expert male race, Tom Fowler and James Dickens rode well to seventh and 10th places respectively.

John Gwilliam and Tom Creber came eighth and ninth in the sport event.

Greg Fitzpatrick lost some time in the mud to finish 14th grand veteran.

In contrast, Louis Brooks made light work of the course on his way to eighth place in the youth race.

This weekend, the team resume top-level racing at round three of the British National Series in Wales.