Garth Thomson returned to mountain bike racing after a two week layoff, but clearly he had not "laid off" like everyone else over the holidays.

Thomson blew away his closest competitors on Sunday and lapped most riders, some twice, on his way to a convincing, if not demoralising, victory in the Mens Open Category.

Thomson covered the ten laps of the up and down course in an astonishing time of 42:37. His nearest rival, and current Series leader, Neil de St Croix was four minutes back in 46:39 and, after suffering a crash late in the race, had to battle over the last lap to hold off the hard-charging New Zealander Geoff Wing who finished just two seconds behind de St Croix.

Dave Padega kept his third place Series position with his fourth place result, but not without some pressure from Andrew Davis, who managed to keep it a close race to the end. Padega finished in 47:29 while Davis took fifth in 48:56.

The next four riders waged quite a battle as they were all separated by just over a minute at the finish. Duncan Simons came out on top of this group, taking sixth in 51:35 and was followed closely over the line by Alan Reid in 52:18, Rolf Runkel in 52:25 and Steve Williams 52:43.

Chris Conway came out for his first race of the season and finished with a respectable time of 58:11 to take tenth followed some time later by Peter Matcham in 58:56, his only satisfaction was discovering at the finish that Grant Gouge had not finished.

Tim Palmer proved last week's win was no fluke by repeating the feat again in the eight lap Veterans category race.

Once again runaway Series points leader, Paulo Madeiros, was forced to try and hang with Palmer's hectic early pace and it took its toll as he faded towards the end, taking second in 45:08, almost three minutes down on Palmer's winning time of 42:20.

Madeiros was followed closely over the line by third placed Mannard Packwood, who also had a strong start but faded towards the end, finishing in 46:27. Ian Fox was still feeling a little sluggish after a two week layoff finishing a bit off the pace in fourth with a time of 49:18. Jeff Amaral took fifth in 51:45 and Nigel Godfrey sixth in 53:35.

In the Boys 15-16 category, the results held to form with Series points leader Matthew Godfrey racking up his fourth victory in a row and in convincing style. Godfrey covered eight laps in 44:28 while Conner Burns, second in the Series and the stronger of the two in the early season, took second in 49:42. Jonathan White closed the gap on Aaron Fenn in the Series standings with his third place finish in 56:30. Tristan Loschert took fourth in 63:02 and Fenn did not finish.

Rickai Mallory recorded his first victory of the season in the Novice Category, meanwhile. Mallory covered the seven laps in a time of 55:26 and is now just two points behind Tristan Smith, the Series points leader who missed Sunday's action.

Mallory didn't have everything his way, however, as he was chased around the course by Richard Bruton who finished a close second in 57:19.

In the 13-14 Boys, Tim Fox got back on the winning track as both he and Geoffrey Burns closed the gap on Series leader Ricky Sousa who missed Sunday's action. Fox took the six lap race in 40:18 with Burns finishing second in 42:13.

The top three are now separated by five points in the standings, with Sousa on 110, Fox 107 and Burns on 105.

Dominic White had his best race of the season taking third in 42:20 just 19 seconds ahead of fourth-placed finisher Thomas Godfrey's time of 42:39. Marc Smith took fifth, just a few seconds behind Godfrey.

Nathan Amaral was again fast and unfortunately uncontested for his fourth victory of the season.