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Toni Bou - Repsol Montesa continued his undefeated run, when he cruised to his fourth consecutive victory at round four of the 2011 SPEA FIM X-Trial World Championship held in Geneva, Switzerland. After an absence of eleven years, top level Trial made a welcome return to this beautiful city and delivered an event packed with action and incident. Albert Cabestany - Sherco enhanced his second place in the championship with yet another runners up spot, whilst Jeroni Fajardo - Ossa gave his new bike and team its first podium finish. French section maestro Bernard Estripeau created seven technical and dramatic looking hazards plus an ultra fast dual lane section that took a mixture of marks from all the riders throughout the competition, in what proved to be one of the best events of the series to date. Even the rocks in the water pool caught Bou out in qualification as he booked his place in the semi-final ahead of Fajardo, Cabestany and Adam Raga - Gas Gas respectively. Takahisa Fujinami - Repsol Montesa and Jack Challoner completed the six-man line up for the second week in a row, as fixed riders James Dabill - Beta and Michael Brown - Gas Gas failed to qualify along with wild card entrants Loris Gubian - Gas Gas and Matteo Grattarola - Gas Gas. It was in the semi-final where Bou began to stamp his authority on the event, by winning his race and cleaning all four observed sections. Behind him the battle was much closer, with Cabestany edging into the final with a narrow two-mark margin over both Fajardo and Raga. Challoner dropped a single mark on the large tree logs whilst all the others riders went clean, but it was Bou's feet up performance in the next hazard that set him apart from the rest. Fajardo had come closest to reaching the ends cards ahead of Bou's attempt, but failed to crest the final climb. Toni brought the crowd to its feet as he wheelied over the final and massive bundle of wooden planks whilst still finding time to turn his head towards his adoring fans. Fajardo spoilt his chances of taking the runners up spot when he crashed out heavily in his dual lane encounter with Bou, as he tried to match the sheer speed of the Montesa rider. Whilst both Cabestany and Raga failed each of the last three sections in the final, Albert had already done enough to secure his second runners up placing in a row. Fajardo was obviously delighted with his first podium finish since switching to Ossa, however Raga was extremely disappointed with a below par fourth position. Even Bou fived the Roman temple section in the final, but this did not prevent him taking the victory and opening up such a lead in the overall standings that he can now clinch his fifth consecutive title at the next and penultimate round in Madrid. Results: 2011 Current FIM championship standings: |
GENEVA
- BOU CRUISES TO HIS LATEST VICTORY