Isle of Man triathlete Will Draper continued his good start to the season by finishing runner-up in the third round of the XETERRA World Cup on Saturday.

The Manxman came home second as the off-road series visited Britain for the first time on Saturday.

Draper was less than two minutes behind victor Felix Forissier at the event that was based in Weston Park in Staffordshire and involved a 1.5km lake swim, 32km mountain bike ride and 10km run.

The 25 year old said after the event: ‘Today was an opportunity to race against some of the best off-road triathletes in the world and I really gave it 100%.

‘After not riding a mountain bike since the event last year, it was a bit of a shock but just shows how lucky I was that my dad would take me on the trails as a kid with my brother in the Isle of Man and I can now just jump on and bridge to the front pack on a fast, single-track dominated course.

‘My feet are absolutely shredded from the trail shoes I used without socks so hopefully they recover quick and allow me to prepare for my next 70.3 championship event in Slovakia in two weeks’ time.’

The success comes less than a week after Draper beat six-time world champion Jonny Brownlee to win the Challenge Gran Canaria in what was arguably the best result of his career to date.

- Also competing at Weston Park was Ramsey’s Dominic Dunwell who took part in the support sprint (half-distance) event and finished an impressive fifth.