Adam Raga has achieved victory in the X-Trial of Barcelona, a feat in the city that he has not fulfilled for 11 years. Toni Bou was second on a night where he suffered two heavy crashes. The podium was completed by Jaime Busto.
More than 10,000 spectators gathered to vibrate with the best riders in the world at the 42nd edition of the Barcelona Indoor Trial, a unique and very special event for local riders. The nine participants, among whom Fajardo was once again, were a truly luxurious line-up. Maximum competitiveness for six demanding zones and a format that does not admit the slightest error to advance in each of the phases.
Bou and Raga did not fail, securing first and second position, respectively, after the first race. This also guaranteed that they would not be in the same group during the second round, one of the key points, since in that case only one of them would have made it to the final. In this first round, Petrella, Casales and Fujinami were already eliminated.
In the second set, Raga battled Busto and Bincaz, beating them by a margin of four points and guaranteeing a place in the grand final. For his part, Bou faced Fajardo and Gelabert, beating them comfortably. It is worth highlighting Gelabert’s strong crash in the second section, which in some way conditioned the course of the race. Toni Bou also fell hard in the fourth zone, hitting his back. The rider from Montesa recovered heroically and finished the round with pain.
With this result, Bou and Raga saw each other in the final, but previously Fajardo and Busto would dispute the third step of the podium. Here the final advantage was for the Basque rider by just one point.
In the grand finale there was tension until the last section. Bou made a mistake in the first area, Raga in the second and another mistake by Bou in the third. This competitiveness carried over to the last section, where despite the fact that Raga added a fiasco, the rider from Montesa did not fully take advantage of the opportunity and his three points finally placed him one behind the TRRS rider.
Finally, a hard-fought victory for Adam Raga, who is thus placed as provisional leader of the championship with the same points as Toni Bou.
X-TRIAL BARCELONA CLASSIFICATION
PILOT STATEMENTS
Adam Raga (1st):
“This was a very important victory in which I gave my best and in the more technical areas I made the difference. Winning in Barcelona is always exciting, especially beating Toni who has ridden at a high level. The win allows me to be in a good situation in a championship where wins make the difference.”
Toni Bou (2nd):
“First of all I want to congratulate Adam on the win. It was a particularly tough test because the fall in the second round left my back battered and I had to infiltrate with anti-inflammatory for the final. Despite this, I competed to the maximum and the victory escaped by a single point in the last section. Even if we didn’t win, the balance is positive.”
Jaime Busto (3rd):
“To be back on the podium and to do it in Barcelona is a great feeling even though I’m not entirely satisfied with my riding. I think I can do better and I hope that will be the case at the next round of the season that I will race, for the first time, at home.”
Jeroni Fajardo (4th):
“Overall it’s gone well. We were close to the rest of the riders throughout the race. In the final with Jaime, I started at the front and I tried not to score many points, in fact, I only had a 5 in zone 3, which was very difficult, and where Jaime also made a fiasco. I tried to push him as hard as I could until the end, but he saved one more point than me.”
