The Alpine resort of Pra Loup was in charge of hosting the fourth round of the UCI TRIALS WORLD CUP In its 2012 edition, with a magnificent set-up as every year in this event, the qualifying tests were held on Friday and Saturday and on Sunday the final and superfinal in a spectacular setting.
In the test Saturday’s qualifying, WildWolf driver Abel Mustieles took a comfortable second place. On a track where the most complicated thing was not to lose concentration as it was too easy, so a mistake in a trial like this can easily leave you out of the top eight who have access to the final.
Fortunately, Sunday’s final was a different story and with a difficulty according to the category of this contest where the best riders in the world meet. After a somewhat weak first lap, Abel occupied second place in a close duel with the Navarrese Benito Ros, with the third in contention, the Frenchman Hermance, this time further away in fourth place. In the second lap Abel got the best out of himself and with only six penalty points he took the lead before the four zones that make up the superfinal, with four points ahead of his closest rival the Navarrese Benito Ros, so Everything was up in the air and anything could happen between the two of them.
In the superfinal, after the discard of Frenchman Vincent Hermance, who could only occupy the fourth final place, Benito gritted his teeth like never before and with only three penalty points, in four areas of maximum difficulty he made things very difficult for the pilot Monty Abel Mustieles, who started in last place with the pressure of having to score a maximum of six points if I wanted to aim for victory.
On this stage and with all the public closely following the outcome and enjoying the intense duel, Abel did not miss, he did what he had to do, demonstrating once again that the pressure, far from affecting him, seems to motivate him, and with six points he took the victory, which serves as a step for him. co-leading the world cup with Frenchman Hermance , both with the same points, and also to top the UCI ranking as the No. 1 rider in the World Trial Championship in the elite category.
A magnificent gift that he gave himself on the day of his 21st birthday, and that gives him an extra dose of motivation for the next big event of the World Championship in Austria in the first week of September.
Abel Mustieles: “Now, this time we are finally going home satisfied. For me, it was just awesome, the desire I had to gain with my birthday came together. All this in a perfect setting, as the French are accustomed to. Now we can fight for the World Cup again. But first, comes the most important one of the year, on Sunday we leave for Austria to the World Cup, more motivated than ever. I want to thank my closest entourage and my sponsor WildWolf for making this possible once again. I’ll stick with the words of Peter Fish himself (UCI jury) at the end of the competition: “This is Trial”.
The next World Cup event will be the weekend of September 22-23 in Geneva, Switzerland. Although we emphasize that this weekend, Abel leaves with the entire Spanish team for the World Championship in Saalfenden, Austria.
Source and photos: Abel Mustieles press.
TRIALS UCI WORLD CUP Pra Loup (France) 4/5
1st Abel Mustieles
ESP 14 points 21+6
2nd Benito Ros
ESP Monty M5 24 points 27+3
3. Rick Koekoek NED 27 points 31+14
4. Vincent Hermance FR 44 points 31+15
