The festive period could prove crucial in deciding the fate of the Imperial Winter Road Racing Series, with Norwood Paragon CC's Chris Moores taking a second and a first place to go top of the table after five races.
Moores had been a close second behind Sigma Sport rival Jerone Walters for the early rounds of the popular Hillingdon-based series, but he won the Boxing Day event to close the gap on his rival (who was second), before going on to finish second in Sunday's fifth round, while Walters could only manage sixth.
Moores was second to talented youth rider Josh Papworth (Wyre Forest CRC) in round five, but he collected the 200 points up for grabs in the senior category. That left Moores and Walters level on 610 points, but with three wins to his name Moores now leads a close series.
The attacks came early in Saturday's race, with Norwood Paragon's Rudie Marais again the chief aggressor while Team Quest's Bill Butterworth, Des Gaylor (Kenton RC), Moores and Walters were also active.
The first main break of the race came from Team Quest's Edward Summerwell, who broke clear with Marais, but with youth rider Josh Papworth quick to respond and tag onto their wheels. Marais finally cracked, with the strong wind playing a big part in the race, leaving 15-year-old Papworth to battle on with Summerwell.
With 3km remaining, Papworth attacked, and clung on to win ahead of a charging group led in by Moores, while Joe Skelton and Martin Dawkins took third and fourth respectively after a fantastic final kilometre.
After suffering punctures in the previous two rounds, Dulwich Paragon CC rider Cosmo Kendros stormed back to form with victory in the latest round of the Hog Hill Winter Road Race Series.
He was one of three riders who survived until the end of a tough elite category race, with the course taking its toll on the majority of the field – which included GB ace Emma Trott (Halfords Bikehut), who chose to ride in that race rather than the women's event for training.
After about 30 minutes, riders started to drop out of the back of the bunch, and with 15 minutes to go there were just three at the front, with Kendros being joined by Philip Murrell (Finsbury Park CC) and Mark Perry (Dulwich Paragon CC), who went on to finish second and third respectively.
Ceri Pritchard (Bush Healthcare) was a convincing winner of Ogmore Valley Wheelers' 10-mile Christmas time trial at Resolven, dubbed JD's Winter Warmer in the Vale of Neath.
Clocking 24min 12sec, Pritchard won the event by two minutes from the promoting club's Chris Matthews, while his team-mate Richard Beech was third, another 31 seconds off the pace.
The Ogmore also won the team prize. It was the slowest three riders who qualified, and despite fielding three in the top 10, the promoting club still won the event with their lower-placed riders clocking a combined 1hr 28min 19sec.