MALVERN mountain bike star Liam Killeen has pulled off his first major win of the season in taking round three of the UCI World Cup Marathon in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada.

The 23-year-old Specialized Factory rider had included this race as an excellent way to prepare himself for the following week's Cross Country World Cup at the same venue, a race he has traditionally done well in.

The Marathon World Cup is not something Liam will be contesting as an overall series, but the placement of this event prior to the World Cup cross country round five proved too tempting.

The riders were lucky with the weather as the build up to the event had seen heavy rain falling all day and night, which completely water-logged the course creating large and often very deep puddles, catching many riders off guard.

The field started off from the centre of Quebec City in light drizzle. On the first of many climbs, about 15km into the 96km race, the front group began to take shape with about eight riders, including the Italian squad of Full Dynamix containing the marathon world champion Massimo De Bertolis.

Amazingly, 30km into the race, the lead group took a wrong turn and ended up riding more than 3km in the wrong direction. By the time the error was realised and the group rejoined the correct course, they found themselves way down on the leaders.

At around 55km, what had once been the lead group with main contenders was now a chase group, and this group began to split up on a long steep climb. Liam and De Bertolis broke away and rode together eventually catching the leaders at the 70k mark.

The final loop of the course was where the result was to be determined, as it included a steep wooded climb of more than 15km in length followed by a descent to the finish.

Liam set the tempo on the second half of the long climb and managed to open up a gap and he then began to pull away.

Eventually Liam crested the summit and descended to the finish line in a time of 4.35.30, with a three minute margin over second-placed De Bertolis.

A tired by ecstatic Liam said: "My first World Cup win. Even though it's a Marathon I feel as though this is an important stepping-stone for more important races to come."

Liam currently stands in eighth place after four of the eight rounds of the cross-country World Cup and returns to action in that discipline in Canada tomorrow (Saturday).