Josh Coppins swept all three races at the Valence International meeting in southern France; beating a host of world championship peers including 2007 number one Steve Ramon.

The New Zealander won the popular French event for the second year in succession and took holeshots in two of the three motos, enjoying small battles with Sebastien Pourcel, Julian Bill and Ramon across the race programme to mark his perfect score-card. It was the second time that the 30 year old (31 next month) walked the top step of the rostrum after his proficiency last Sunday at Montevarchi in Italy and in spite of discomfort in his left shoulder than he aggravated at Mantova.

” It was an enjoyable race because the weather was good for once and the track offered near Grand Prix conditions which meant that I could really go for it,” said the YZ450FM rider. “I cannot complain with the build-up I’ve had. We have been using the race-bike for three weeks now and I am coming to grips with it. My shoulder is not 100% and I will go for a scan tomorrow. It has become better since Mantova but gave me some trouble on the long and rough down-hills at Valence. I will find out this week what I have to do, whether it be physio or rest, and there is plenty of time before the first Grand Prix to get back to normal. I am in great shape, so my confidence is good.”

Results:

1 COPPINS Joshua 25+ 25+ 25= 75pts
2 POURCEL Sébastien 22 22 20 64pts
3 RAMON Steve 18 20 22 60pts
4 NAGL Max 20 15 18 53pts
5 DE-DYKER Ken 16 18 10 44pts
6 BILL Julien 11 16 16 43pts
7 AUBIN Nicolas 9 14 14 37pts
8 DESALLE Clément 10 6 12 28pts
9 NEMETH Kornel 15 8 - 23pts
10 PRIEM Manuel 7 2 13 22pts