Maurice Formosa (The Cyclist) was the outright winner of the BDO Malta Cross Country National Points series when he sealed yet another victory in the last race of the Series held in Miżieb.
Held over a series of five races, the National Point Series consistently welcomed a strong group of cyclists who race after race battled it out for a better placing. Despite several attempts at knocking off Formosa from the top post on the leaderboard, Formosa kept strong to claim the 2018 National Point Series title, unbeaten.
The last race held in Miżieb, which incidentally also hosted the Series opener, started off with Formosa, Etienne Bonello, Mark Bonnici, Brandon Sultana and Patrick Scicluna setting the pace. By lap three, Formosa and Bonello were leading the pack and went on to do so until the end when Formosa secured his fifth victory to emerge unbeaten in the Series.
Until Lap three, it was Bonnici, Scicluna and Sultana running a neck to neck race however a technical mishap forced Bonnici out of the fray leaving a battle for third place between Scicluna and Sultana. In the end it was Sultana who pipped Scicluna to this place.
Following this race, the top three cyclists who etched their names in the final classification were Maurice Formosa (The Cyclist), Etienne Bonello (Team Greens) and Patrick Scicluna (Mosta AF Sign Studio).
Open Category
In the Male Open Category, Ack Hili (Agones SFC) dominated the race from the word go, and despite registering a slower time in the fourth lap his overall performance saw him with nearly a minute advantage over second placed Francesco Sultana. Martin Bonnici (Team Greens) came in third place fifty seconds behind Bonnici. In the final classification, it was Francesco Sultana, who secured eighty points over Ack Hili, to take the top placing. Hili followed in second and Brian Magri (The Cyclist) in third place.
Ladies Category
The final race of the series saw Marie Claire Aquilina (Team Greens) secure another win, followed by Fiona Darmanin Tedesco and Mary Spiro. In the final classification it was, however, Fiona Darmanin Tedesco to claim top spot having competed in four races compared to Aquilina's three. Danica Bonello Spiteri took third place, having also competed in just three races.
Age Group Categories
Clyve Chetcuti, Paul Zarb (The Cyclist), Brian Magri (The Cyclist) took top billing in the Junior, Masters 40+ and Masters 50+ Categories in the Miżieb Race.
Age Group Final Classification points went to Paul Zarb, Mark Portelli, Enrico Bradamante and Claudine Gatt in the Masters 40+ category, Gaetano Catania, Mary Spiro in the Masters 50+ Categories. Daniel Vella secured the Junior Category.
"The BDO Malta Cross Country National Point Series came to a successful end - this year we have seen increased participation in almost all categories and each race was never short of adrenaline inducing action. The Series not only rewards performance but also commitment since the more races one takes part in the more points one accumulates" explained Pierre Zammit Endrich. "The last commitment for the Malta Mountain Bike Association will now be the Cross Country National Championships which will take place on Sunday 1st July on the Ħaġar Qim circuit - we hope to have a record breaking amount of participants taking part!"
The Cross Country National Points Series is sponsored by BDO Malta and supported by PASH The Healthy Option, SIS (Carm. & Co. Ltd.), H2only (Island Beverages Ltd.), Camilleri Marine Ltd., AF Sign Studio, The Cyclist, Wheel Wizard, Magri Cycles and MTB Malta.
More information can be found on http://www.maltamountainbike.org.mt/