Last out of the gate, content to watch his competitors battle for the lead over the first portion of the course, England's Steve Peat picked the perfect spot to make a charge for first place and came away with a gold medal at the 1999 Winter X Games.

Careful and cunning at the same time, Peat encountered trouble only once -- 100 yards after the finish line when he tumbled head-over-heels into the catching net.

"I was too busy celebrating," said Peat, who posted the fastest time in qualifying Wednesday despite never racing on snow before. "Good thing the catching net caught me."

	Steve Peat capped off a perfect two days on the Biker X course with a gold medal.

Peat, 24, won by being cautious early in the race, but his winning move was anything but subtle.

Peat set up his move in the first turn by moving into fourth place as John Tomac and Eric Carter set the pace. But when Tomac decided to gamble over the double step jump -- soaring nearly 40 feet into the air -- it allowed Peat to sneak up on the leaders and pass them out of the second high-banking turn.

Tomac carried too much speed into the berm, drifting high and taking Carter with him. As Tomac corrected his mistake, however, Peat arrived on the scene and clipped Tomac's front tire on his way to victory. Carter was able to get past Tomac and take silver, while Jergen Beneke rode away with the bronze.

"I got a terrible gate; I got boxed in and pulled over," Peat said. "The first turn I just swooped and took two guys. Then I just made the double, and Tomac just launched this huge jump. I knew he wasn't going to make the turn, so I set up for that turn.

"E.C. got pushed out by Tomac, so I just swooped inside. Me and Tomac collided, he went down and that was it. I was out in front and just held it until the finish."

Tomac said the risk of going big over the double jump was worth the potential reward of a gold medal. He wound up fifth.

"Yeah, I went big off the step. I thought it could be done, nobody had tried it yet," Tomac said. "I wanted to save it for the last race. Especially if I was in second or close to the lead. ... I went for it.

"I had actually made the pass, kind of. When I went into the next turn, I had Eric on the outside, just where I needed him. I was getting ready to come out of the turn, and Steve nailed me and took me out."

Carter also thought he had set up the race just right for victory. He had hit the straightaway bumps in rhythm to reclaim the lead over Tomac heading into the double. But when Tomac cut him off high in the berm, his plans turned to silver.

"The (second) turn was fine, and then I don't know where (Tomac) came from on that downhill into the step jump," Carter said. "He must have flown 40 feet or something. I tried to beat him to the turn, but there was no way. He wasn't backing off.

"We were kind of stuck at the top of the turn, and it just gave Steve a chance to get inside. He hit Johnny pretty hard. Johnny few off. It sounded like I was watching the NFL or something when he got hit. I almost hit Johnny's bike, but I just got going again and into second."

Joe Lawwill, who barely made it into the competition as the 24th and final qualifier, nearly made it on the podium, finishing fourth. Scott Sharples was sixth.

Shaun Palmer, who is trying to medal in four different disciplines at these Winter X Games, crashed in his first preliminary heat. He will compete in Skier X, Boarder X and Snocross later this week.