It has been a long time between drinks for Adrian Smith on the national cross-country scene but he intends ending the drought with a cork-popping performance this weekend.

The fourth and final round of this season’s Suzuki New Zealand Cross-country Championships is set for farmland at Cheviot, north of Christchurch, on Saturday and there is still everything to ride for.

Palmerston North’s defending national champion Adam Reeves won the first of four rounds in the Suzuki-sponsored series near Pahiatua in February and Mokau’s Smith won the day at round two near Huntly last month.

Former champion Smith also reigned supreme at round three near Blenheim just over a fortnight ago and this puts him firmly in control of the series with riders to discard their worst result of the four rounds.

So, with only three of the four rounds counting towards the championship, all the leading contenders will be hoping to pocket a top result in Saturday’s three-hour senior race.

As it stands, Smith will discard his sixth placing from round one, while Reeves will no doubt forget about his DNF from round three, Raglan’s Brandon Given will drop his non score from round two and Whakatane’s Lance O’Dea will put aside his 18th placing from round three.

Riders such as Woodville’s Ben Exeter, New Plymouth’s Renny Johnston, Hamilton’s Sam Brown and Onewhero’s Jim Orton could also cause an upset or two.

The racing is even tighter in the junior ranks where three riders are all level on points at the top after their worst results are omitted from the analysis.

Maruia’s Ethan Bruce (pictured above), Raglan’s Mathew Quirke and Pahiatua’s Scott Sowry have each scored a first and a second placing thus far and it will come down to Saturday’s final 90-minute junior race to finally separate the trio.

Eketahuna’s Daniel Christie, Otorohanga’s Liam Hobbs, Gore’s Ben Turnbull and Mokau’s Aaron Jones could also feature in the battle for podium honours on Saturday.

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com