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Reigning champion Toni Bou - Repsol Montesa made it two wins in a row when the twenty-four year old took a resounding victory at the second round of the 2011 SPEA FIM X-Trial World Championship held in Marseille, France. Whilst Adam Raga - Gas Gas took the runners up spot on the night, both he and eventual third place rider Albert Cabestany - Sherco simply had no answer to Bou's awesome performance. Although Takahisa Fujinami - Repsol Montesa was classified in fourth position, his place in the final came to a premature halt after a nasty crash in the dual lane race, which forced him to retire from the event with a suspected neck injury. Whilst Bou was always going to be the likely winner, despite Cabestany's back to back victories here during the last two editions of this Trial, it was Jeroni Fajardo - Ossa on his new bike that threatened to steal the show with two impressive cleans in the opening two sections. Unfortunately for Fajardo and the assembled Ossa entourage, whilst he made it through to the semi final Jeroni was unable to maintain his early form and had to wave good-bye to the passionate French crowd as he failed to make it to the final and finished down in a slightly disappointing fifth spot on his Ossa debut. However Fajardo was not the only higher ranked rider to experience a disappointing showing, as Britain's James Dabill - Beta finished in last place after not progressing through the initial qualifying process. His two fives and two threes were added to by a hefty five time penalties as all the riders struggled to complete the opening four hazards within the allotted six minutes. With Dabill and Gubian having sealed their own fate, compatriots Michael Brown - Gas Gas and Jack Challoner - Beta had to go through two tie-decider sections to determine who would progress to the semi final. Brown eventually earned his place, however was eliminated at the next stage of the Trial. As has been the case so many times in the past, Bou used the latter and more difficult part of the competition to create a massive advantage over his rivals to take a clear and decisive win. However towards the close of the semi final the scores told a different tale, as Raga closed the gap to within two marks, before then losing severe ground at the critical moment. Toni's defining ride came in the rock and water hazard where he lost just one dab and one mark on time where every other rider had failed. With just two out of the six rounds done, Bou has already opened up a healthy thirteen-point lead in the general standings over both Raga and Cabestany. Toni will be hoping that this unlucky margin does not harm his progress when he arrives in Barcelona early next month for the third event in the series. In just two weeks time the compact arena and technical sections of
Marseille will give way to the huge Olympic facility in Barcelona, and its
famous massive hazards that hold no mercy even for the best Trial riders
in the World. |
2011 SPEA FIM X-TRIAL Round 2 Results: XT-Trial For more infomation please visit
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BOU
MAKES IT TWO