Excitement has been a constant throughout the Andorran GP, which has been held over two scoring days. The first, which you can find here , gave us the eighth victory out of a possible nine of the 2012 season for Toni Bou, ahead of Jeroni Fajardo and Adam Raga. The second day left us with two big surprises, one of them was the victory of Albert Cabestany, becoming the third rider to win a World Championship event in 2012; the other, that Bou was left out of the places of honour for the first time since the 2010 Portuguese GP.
The proposed route was, according to Bou, “easy”, while for Fujinami “perhaps a little more difficult than the first day”. In the first pass through the 15 zones it was Toni Bou himself who dominated with an accumulated partial of only two points, corresponding to two “ones” in zones 4 and 14. Cabestany was close behind, just two points behind, with a four-point card, one less than Jeroni Fajardo. Not far behind the leading trio was Adam Raga with seven points. Behind, a little further away, Takahisa Fujinami.
Therefore, very tight records that left all the excitement for the second lap. Curiously, the five leading riders worsened their previous time in this second pass through the fifteen sections. Another indicative fact is that all of them left at least one fiasco, something that did not happen in the first turn.
The only two of these riders to incur the maximum penalty twice were Bou and Fujinami; this fact weighed down the reigning champion and completely ruined his chances, both of victory and of getting on the podium. If he had managed to get a zero in zone 14, he would have tied everything with Albert Cabestany.
The Himself Cabestany started the second round with problems in the fourth zone, where a fiasco was left; From this point on, the Tarragona native would only leave one more penalty point and masterfully held the type against his rivals, closing a second set with six points that were well worth a deserved victory.
After the winner, a Jeroni Fajardo in tremendous form won the game against Raga again by one point. This result reinforces the second position of the Girona rider and extends his advantage over Cabestany to five points. Bou, despite the puncture on this GP day, maintains a solid lead of 40 points at the head of the provisional standings with only three rounds to go.
JUNIOR
In the Junior category the day was very similar to that of the premier class, with the current leader and dominator, Alexandre Ferrer, out of the places of honour for the first time all season.
The victory went to the French rider Dagnicourt after a nice fight with Jorge Casales, who went off again on the second day of the Andorran GP. Both riders were tied after the first pass through the fifteen sections, but the Frenchman did not let up on a second lap that he completed cleanly. Jorge made a mistake in zone five, but maintained his good pace in the rest of the course and signed an extraordinary second position, repeating the previous day’s record and adding his fourth consecutive podium in just eight days.
The podium was completed Jack Sherppard, Jitsie rider and reigning Junior World Champion. Fourth was Pol Tarrés, ahead of Alexandre Ferrer; a positive result for Pol, as he surpassed his main rivals, which are Ferrer himself and Moret, who once again had a bad day in the GP.
It was a very positive weekend for Laia Sanz, who leaves Andorra with a double victory and all the options to defend the world title, which would be her 12th. Being a relatively short championship, it doesn’t allow for mistakes and Laia has worked hard to stay ahead.
It was also a fantastic weekend for Sandra Gómez , who finished third and second, respectively, on both GP days.
YOUNG PEOPLE
In the base category, the youth category, victory went to Steven Coquelin, followed by Bradley Cox and Sverre Lundevold. The first Spanish rider was Oriol Noguera, seventh.
Text: Trialworld / Photos: FIM / G2FMedia
Toni Bou: “Today’s result is a good indication that the opponents are strong and do not forgive our mistakes. It was an easy trial, one of those that I don’t like, and as always in these conditions the mistakes are more important. On the second lap I made two mistakes and was off the podium, simple as that. The important thing is that with the eight victories in the previous rounds we have a good margin to face the final stretch of the championship calmly. We’ll keep working on our usual line and being careful with injuries.”
Takahisa Fujinami: “Unlike yesterday, today I can’t feel satisfied. The trial was similar to yesterday’s, perhaps a little more difficult but one that does not allow you to recover the points lost in errors. I’ve been leaving a few points here and some there, while the rivals have remained much more consistent. I tried as hard as I could, but the result doesn’t reflect that.”
Adam Raga:
“Overall I’m really happy with how the weekend went. On lap 2 I was leading until I made a mistake and lost the lead.”
Laia Sanz: “This second day went very well. We rode well and everything went great. In fact, I’m especially pleased with the whole weekend, as these last few months have been very intense for me and we didn’t know how we would find our rivals. In the end, we were able to start with two wins and it’s clear that the balance of the grand prix couldn’t be better.”
Jorge Casales: “The weekend has been dominated by very technical sections and steep slopes of the terrain, with two river areas. Both days I have kept very similar records to those of my rivals, although the first one we had problems in the set-up of the bike and I had to counteract it with a beastly physical effort. Two areas were very decisive, seven and eight, which I was particularly good at. The only thing that weighs on me is not being able to be in Australia and Japan, as I could do very well in the provisional classification.”
Sandra Gomez: “I’m really happy with this weekend. I think it’s the result of a good job, a few very hard months since my ankle injury without being able to do pre-season like the rest of my rivals. I’m happy, I’ve been thinking about this moment for a long time and it’s finally here and I’ve been able to show myself that I’m there. My third and second place are not only mine, without my parents, Beltrán (my backpacker), Difrenos, my family, friends, physiotherapist (Reydes), my coach Juanma Blázquez, sponsors like (RFME-SPEA, angryfish, extremebike, s3), my boyfriend, and all those people who in bad times have been there encouraging me and giving me patience and good training… This is everyone’s business, but this has only just begun, and it’s a great motivation to keep training hard!”
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