Mother Nature helped out the Contagious Mountain Bike Club on Wednesday.

The organization's most recent race benefitted from a slight downpour of rain earlier in the day that provided riders with some additional traction while working their way around the course.

The track wasn't lacking in hills, beginning and ending in the Chadburn Lake Ski Trail parking lot.

Jonah Clark led from start to finish, finishing the more than 15-km course with a time of 43:55.

Clark gave it all he had for the first couple of kilometres, jumping out to an early lead. He eventually eased up a bit around the half-way point, which came before a steep climb, approximately half a kilometre.

The real battle was for second place and between riders Marcus Wattereus, Bill Slater and Dave Gonda, who is training to compete in the 2009 Canada Summer Games, scheduled for the last two weeks of August in P.E.I.

The three riders were less than five minutes apart from each other, with Gonda taking second place, just beating out Wattereus, who he said he could see whenever he looked back.

"I kept looking back to see him," Gonda said. "I just kept riding as hard as I could and it worked out."

This was Gonda's first race since he found out he was going to the Canada Summer Games this past week.

He said he was just hoping to stay with top three or four riders and wasn't attempting to catch up with Clark.

"I knew he was long gone on the first hill," Gonda said.

At the Canada Summer Games Gonda will race in three road races and one mountain bike race. Gonda said his goal is to just finish each race.

Wattereus, who finished with a time of 45:59, was also pleased with how his race went.

"I'm happy with the race," he said. "I do find the Yukon River Trail is always challenging because it's so narrow and steep. When you are tired, keeping your balance is challenging."

He said he started Thursday's race somewhat conservative along with a group of three other riders, who were all behind Clark.

"I basically said bye, bye, right off the start to Jonah and just let him go," Wattereus said.

Bill Slater finished with the fourth best time, coming in at 48:04.

The Contagious Mountain Bike Club promotes all forms of mountain biking in the Yukon. Its events and races are geared to riders of all skill levels.

More information about the Contagious Mountain Bike Club and its upcoming events can be found at www.cmbcyukon.ca.