Nick Corlett battled back stoically from a disastrous start to finish 10th in the men’s cross-country mountain bike event at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday.

After getting away from the start well from the cycling velodrome the Ballagarey man had barely begun to climb an embankment in the first few metres of the Nerang course when the chain snapped on his bike. Luckily, he had not passed the service point so he was able to cut across the pack to reach his back-up team where the Isle of Man mechanic calmly and swiftly fitted a spare chain.

Remaining calm himself, Corlett then set about re-catching the entire field ahead of him and later explained that spectators had wandered onto the course in places unaware that anymore riders were approaching. He soon caught and passed a number of the riders ahead of him to get up to 16th place and by mid-distance he was 12th.

Encouraged by the Manx contingent present at the event, he continued to battle away to ultimately finish a fine 10th overall out of 20 finishers. At the sharp-end, the race was largely dominated by the strong New Zealand team which filled three of the top-four positions, including gold and silver, with South Africa in bronze.

The leading English rider was Frazer Clacherty in fifth, with Cameron Orr of Northern Ireland eighth and Grant Ferguson of Scotland one place ahead of Manxman Corlett. ’The fans were incredible, cheering me on. Without their support and encouragement I wouldn’t have got back like that,’ said Nick later.

Team coach Andrew Roche turned a negative into a positive when suggesting that the early issue possibly did Corlett a favour as it took him away from the cut and thrust of the battle and left him to get on with his own race.

’Our team mechanic, Alec, was massively under pressure but he put the new chain on the bike in about one minute.

’And Nick was amazing too, keeping calm throughout. He could so easily have lost his head in a situation like that.’