In the heart of the townd Switzerland in Geneva hosted the fifth and final round of the TRIALS UCI WOLRD CUP, in this 2012 edition. With a set-up that can only be described as spectacular, careful and thought out in all its details so that the public could comfortably enjoy the spectacle of the trial, and the riders could enjoy at the same time some areas magnificently executed in all its aspects, a 10 for the organization.
And a spectacle and good was what they offered since Saturday’s semifinal, those who have shown themselves to be the dominators of the 20″ category in all the previous tests, the Spaniards Ros and Mustieles and the Frenchman Hermance, occupying the first three places of the eight that give access to the final, with scores already quite far from the rest, proving once again that the race was going to be a matter for the three of them, since after the first four rounds they were so tight in the classification, that whoever won this test would also be the final winner of the contest.
In Sunday’s final after the first lap, the race came down to a head-to-head between WildWolf rider Abel Mustieles and Navarrese Ros, as a series of mistakes by Frenchman Hermance definitively took him out of the title fight.
An impressive second lap by Monty, with only one penalty point after six extremely difficult sections, led him to lead the race with a four-point advantage over Benito Ros, before the last four and final sections of the superfinal.
With this new format of the superfinal, the drivers start one by one in reverse order of the classification of the final. And the score of these four “superzones” is added to that obtained in the final, in this way each rider has 15 minutes to complete his route accompanied by all the spectators, before the next rider, so that the winner of the final, being the last to start, knows in advance the score of his rivals.
After a great journey in this superfinal of the Navarro Ros. Abel knew he had a 7-point lead, before his four zones, so everything was up in the air.
Thus, with a huge crowd expectantly following the outcome of the race, Abel enters the first zone and as he approaches his final stretch a major mistake by going through a wrong gate and the consequent penalty, It leads him to see how his advantage was reduced to just two points before the last three and very difficult sections, a task that seemed almost impossible.
Right here the best Abel Mustieles came to the fore, fighting to the death and giving his best, In front of an audience that cheered him expectantly, he managed to complete the course with only one more point to win the test in extremis and thus take this championship for which he has fought so hard, just in the last meter of the last section, thus achieving a title that seemed completely impossible, when fifteen days before the first test, Abel broke the pyramidal bone in his right wrist.
The summary could be, something that his physical trainer, the great Jesús Otero, always reminds him of: “Justice to sacrifice”.
WORLD CUP GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
Abel Mustieles – 580 points
Vincent Hermance – 560 points
Benito Ros – 555 points
Abel Mustieles: “It was the hardest day psychically I’ve ever experienced, throughout the day we experienced a brutal pressure, difficult to withstand, but we are no longer excited about second places, we look for the victory from the first zone and we don’t stop until we find it. I still have big mistakes, I shouldn’t skip the ribbons playing for the World Cup, everything would have been calmer, more normal, but this gave him emotion, winning like this will make me remember Geneva for the rest of my life, how hard 2012 was… Now we have fuel for the whole winter, to continue fighting as I have until now in every way, to be able to continue fulfilling the dreams that are so difficult to achieve… Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all my team. 2013, Here We Come!
