Matt Simmonds and Joe Smith travelled abroad to Gouveia in Portugal for the first Maxxis Cup international race of the season. With a start list full of big name riders; which wouldnt have looked out of place at a World cup round, the race saw some fierce competetion. The guys did fantstically well. Joe still nursing an injury to his hand took third in Junior whilst Matt put in an incredible ride which placed him 18th in the Elite.



The new track at Hopton was awesome; steep and fun, it started off tight and twisty with technical woods at the top featuring a tricky road jump onto a rooty landing. From the halfway point the course opened up to become fast and bumpy with lots of small jumps and drops before long sweeping berms led you down to the final straight with a loose rock garden which saw the odd crash before the final short jump to finish field.



This final round of the winter series saw a good turnout of riders, the track was nice and dry but the weather was a real mixture snow one minute bright sunshine the next but racing as per usual was fast and close. Team rider Stefan Thomas took a well deserved third place in Youth and in the series overall Co-factory rider Pete Robinson (Pictured above) rode hard to take tenth. Jack Geoghegan was flying and put in a strong run bagging himself a second in Junior behind Sam Dale.