Jaime Busto kicks off 2025 with victory at the XTrial in Madrid

The first round of the 2025 FIM X-Trial World Championship held at the Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid has resulted in Jaime Busto’s fifth victory in a World Championship race. Toni Bou (Repsol Honda Trial Team) qualified second at 4 points and Adam Raga (Sherco) third at 5 points.

The Spaniard has beaten the other three finalists in this first event that has premiered a competition format and in a Final that has been very tight since between the winner and the fourth classified there has only been five points difference and the third place has been decided in a tiebreaker that has had the Sherco riders Adam Raga and Benoit Bincaz as protagonists and that has been decided in favor of Spanish.

The first section ended with the four protagonists loaded with 5 points and with Bou disappointed as he defended having passed it to zero but the score was a fiasco. From there, Jaime Busto has been the one who has made the difference with the only zero in the second section while his rivals were loaded with fives and the four finalists also went to 5 in the third section as they would end up doing in the fifth. Before the last zone, Busto had already secured the victory and Bou began to be able to stay off the podium as he arrived with 21 points, one more than Raga and Bincaz. Finally, the World Champion added a 3 which, combined with the fives of his rivals, gave him the second.

For his part, Raga was third after beating Bincaz in a tie-break zone. The Spaniard returned to the podium at the venue where he was first proclaimed World Champion 21 years ago and returned to the Top 3 after the 2023 X-Trial in Bordeaux.

In Q1, the first pass through the zones, Bou, Busto and Raga were the best in this order and qualified directly for the final. The fourth finalist, Benoit Bincaz was the most effective in Q2 that pitted him against Gabriel Marcelli (Repsol Honda Trial Team), Sondre Haga (GasGas), Jack Peace (Sherco) and Miquel Gelabert (Vertigo) in the new Sprint format that punctuates the route in time.

The Superpole was held in the same format to decide the order of passage through the first zone and Bou was the fastest.

Jaime Busto (1st): “To start the season with a win is extraordinary and to do it in such a demanding final in which every detail was very important, makes it even more important. The truth is that I started a little nervous, but as the sections went by I felt very good on the bike. Now the important thing is to maintain consistency.”

Toni Bou (2nd): “It was a tough and demanding race and a complicated final because in the first zone I thought I went to zero but they ended up charging me with a five for something that I think was a misunderstanding. From there I rode a bit nervously. Second place is a lesser evil and we have to look forward.”

Adam Raga (3rd): “This podium is very important for me because I achieved it in the place where I proclaimed World Champion in 2003 and I did it in my last appearance in Madrid because, after the X-Trial in Barcelona, I will retire. I’ve shown that I’m still at a high level and I’ve enjoyed it a lot.”

The second round of the X-Trial World Championship will be the X-Trial in Chambéry on January 11th.