Maxxis Cup 1 – Gouveia, Portugal and Round 2 – Vigo, Spain

Gouveia is quite often the first big race of the year, a warm up for the world cups. It’s always really well attended and we were using this event as our Team camp and Fox Testing. It was the first time that the XC and DH riders would all get together and we would be given all our new kit for the year, which was like having the biggest Christmas stocking ever !! Boxes and boxes of stuff from Alpinestars, Bontrager and Fox. The team tents were all set up along with the stickered up team vehicles, the whole set up looked wicked. We also had a group of guys from Trek at the race for the weekend. They were the team of people that designed the downhill bike and they were really keen to see it getting put through its paces. They were also great for us to talk to about the bike and they left with pages of notes and ideas about working together on future ideas and plans to make the team the most successful it can be. They were a great bunch and great to see a company that is so enthusiastic about racing and being at the events.

Fox were also there in force as our team suspension supplier they were there to get all our suspension set up and teaching us to get the best out of our bikes. We also had some team photos and filming done, so there was a lot going on over a few days. There was also the race, but that was not really a priority for the team this weekend. We had very little chance for practice, but I managed to ride well enough in the 2nd run to take the victory ahead of fellow Brit Jess Stone. The best day for me was Monday after the race, as everyone had left the race and we were left to spend the day with Fox testing suspension on the race track. The track was pretty rough after racing so it was great to get some runs in on an empty track. I learnt so much as we went through all different types of set up to find the one that worked best for me. It was a great learning experience and we are lucky enough to have a guy from Fox with us at all the races to make sure we get the bikes working the best for each track.

The Fox, Trek and XC guys then left us and we continued up to the 2nd round of the Maxxis Cup Series at Vigo in Spain. This was the venue of a world cup 2 years ago, so it was going to be a great track to race. We had a couple of days to get some training done, which was made much easier as the sun was shining and we were staying right on the beach !! The weather stayed great for the entire week and the race track was really loose and dusty. This weekend we were able to concentrate fully on the race and practice our preparation as a team ahead of the first World Cup.

I did more practice runs than I would normally do at a world cup race, but I wanted to really get some good time in on my downhill bike. I was really happy with how I was riding in practice. In my qualifying run I had a silly crash which lost me some valuable time, but in the 2nd run I managed to stay on and knocked 10 secs of my time to finish in a time of 2.53 min, good enough to take 1st spot. Justin had a hard time in one section of the track, getting off line, hitting a stump and ending up over the bars, but Andrew rounded out a successful weekend for Trek with a 3rd place finish. Now it’s home for a few days and then off to South Africa to start the World Cup series for 2009.