COLCHESTER Rovers turned up the heat in the fifth round of the Mud, Sweat and Gears mountain bike series.

The Bury St Edmunds course gave the riders new challenges, with nearly all the features changed in some way.

The Rovers field was a little depleted in the Open Male race due to injury and other riding commitments.

Leading the way was Martin Smith, who finished 20th in the 83-rider field after completing five laps in one hour 16 minutes.

Christopher English followed less than a minute later in 25th place, with John Letch five minutes back in 41st.

Paul Smith was 44th after finishing 40 seconds later while a puncture on the third lap hampered Paul Fisher, who finished 69th.

Rovers' Stuart Weatherley backed up and matched his result from the previous round in the hot conditions, placing seventh in the competitive Sport Male category.

He completed six laps of the near three-mile course in 1h 22m.

The under-nine competitors made good use of the pump track for their course, with Phoebe Ollett enjoying one of her best races so far.

She finished fifth among riders up to two years older.

George Collins and William Smith represented Rovers in the boys' race, achieving ninth and tenth-place finishes in a field of 30 competitors.

The under-12 course covered part of the adult course and Rovers' Lizzie Welstead and Daisy Emerson rode well, finishing sixth and seventh in the girls' race.

Former Rover Max Rethman clinched eighth place in the boys' race.

Rovers' Roy Cuppleditch took on a 100-mile time trial in the ECCA E2/100 BBAR on the A11, near Newmarket.

Having been on the reserve list, Cuppleditch got 12 hours' notice that he would be on the start sheet.

With a 5am start on Sunday, he was on the road to the race at 3am.

After his support driver dropped out due to illness, Cuppleditch eventually got a second support driver, whose own rider dropped out.

Conditions were near perfect for some fast times but unfortunately, the Rovers rider wasn't one of them as he was coming back from a back injury.

However, both the men's and ladies' course records were broken on the day despite the heat again being a factor.

Cuppleditch has now completed two out of three club BAR (best all rounder) events, with just the 12-hour TT to go in August.