The Barcelona Indoor Trial opened the 2024 season of the X-Trial World Championship in style. The expectation was high, since, despite having attended Adam Raga’s debut with Sherco in Sheffield (non-scoring race), the real pressure of the fight for the championship began at the Palau Sant Jordi.
The riders who took part in the start were: Toni Bou, Jaime Busto, Gabriel Marcelli, Toby Martyn, Matteo Grattarola, Adam Raga, Benoit Bincaz and Aniol Gelabert. A total of 8 drivers and 3 rounds of competition, including a final 3.
In the first round , Toni Bou already stood out, adding only one point, closely followed by Busto and Marcelli. It was also a good round for Raga, fifth, just two points from the top 3, followed by Grattarola, Bincaz, Gelabert and Martyn who sank after signing a fiasco in the last zone.
The second round began with fiascos for Raga and Gelabert, a result that was going to weigh them down a lot in the classification of this race, in which they ended up closing the classification. The best was again Toni Bou, also followed on this occasion by Jaime Busto and with Grattarola closing the “top 3” and Toby Martyn who woke up in the race.
The sum of the records of both rounds gave, however, the pass to the grand final to Gabriel Marcelli, leaving Grattarola at the gates of it. Along with Marcelli, Bou and Busto would compete.
GRAND FINALE: BOU, BUST, MARCELLI
The final has been at a high technical level, with demanding “all or nothing” areas, Toni Bou’s specialty. The rider from Montesa has made the difference in the second, third and fourth zones as he has accumulated 5 points in them while his rivals added 15 and lost any option to dispute the victory.
The second placewent to Jaime Busto and, in fact, it was decided in the first section in which Busto was the only one to go to zero and Gabriel Marcelli was penalized two points. In the last zone, Marcelli recovered a point, but was unable to overtake Busto in the final classification.
In this way, Toni Bou adds his 80th victory in the X-Trial World Championship and provisionally leads the 2024 standings, whose second round of the 2024 X-Trial World Championship will be the X-Trial of Chalon-Sur-Saône on March 15.
KEY STATEMENTS
Toni Bou (1st): “I am really satisfied with this victory because it is the best way to start the defense of the title and I have done it by winning the first two rounds and the final that has been very demanding as befits a test with the history of Barcelona. I have felt very good from the beginning. In the final I made a small mistake in the first zone, but I felt very comfortable and, from the second to the fourth section, I made the difference to secure the victory.”
Jaime Busto (2nd): “Second place is my best result here. I went from less to more and I rode with a lot of confidence. I’m happy with how I drove and with this second final position that shows that we are working hard and well and are permanently aiming to win the World Championship races.”
Gabriel Marcelli (3rd): “I am satisfied with the third place with which I continue the trend of the end of last season. I couldn’t repeat last year’s second position here in Barcelona but I’m satisfied. Perhaps the pressure of thinking that the objective was none other than to win has weighed on me a little. But this third place is also very important.”
X-TRIAL BARCELONA 2024 CLASSIFICATION
Barcelona X-Trial 2024
- TONI BOU (MONTESA)
- JAIME BUSTO (GASGAS)
- GABRIEL MARCELLI (MONTESA)
- MATTEO GRATTAROLA (BETA)
- ADAM RAGA (SHERCO)
- TOBY MARTYN (MONTESA)
- BENOIT BINCAZ (SHERCO)
- ANIOL GELABERT (TRRS)
