She has done it again. Laia Sanz won her thirteenth trial world title this afternoon after winning the last round of the season, which was held in the French town of La Chatre.
The KH-7 rider has made good predictions, despite having missed two of the five races of the championship due to the coincidence of dates with the enduro world championship. Today she showed that, even with more pressure than ever, she is an exceptional athlete: the best motorcycle rider in the world and of all time.
His victory has been far from a triumphal ride. Even at the start of the second half of the season, Laia fell behind her main rival, Britain’s Emma Bristow, after receiving a very rigorous five-point penalty in one zone, leaving the Spaniard momentarily without the coveted title. Fortunately, the multiple champion was able to react with her usual bravery to end up taking home the victory, the 32nd of her career in the women’s trial world championship.
“It hasn’t been easy. Emma competed well and it was close. I think I had a good race too, but today was one of those days when you get more penalty points than you deserve“says Laia.
The Catalan rider assures that revalidating the title this year has a lot of merit: “I am very happy and proud to achieve this. It’s probably the most special of my career because it’s been a year in which I’ve had a hard time. In addition, due to the coincidence of calendars I thought that I would not be able to compete in the trial championship and in the end I did, but with more pressure than ever, since each race was a final as I had missed the two at the beginning“.
“To top it all off, I had no choice but to have to prepare and contest this race at the same time as the Saint-Flour enduro. So, after overcoming all this, I feel very happy and very proud to have worked with such good people at the end of the year. I am very grateful to the people who have helped me and continue to help me, to the sponsors and to the fans who follow me“Laia continues.
After getting on the podium, Laia had to hurry to cover the nearly 300 kilometres by car to another French town, Saint-Flour, where in the late afternoon she will compete in the “prologue” day of the French Enduro Grand Prix, which will last until Sunday. If the KH-7 rider were to win both races of this last round of the series, she would add her second enduro world title to the 13 trials she already has and equal Giacomo Agostini’s mythical figure of 15 titles.
Compacted by Laia Sanz in the Trial de La Chatre from Mediagé Comunicación on Vimeo.
