There were no surprises at the start of the 2014 Indoor Trial World Championship season. Toni Bou claimed a resounding victory after leading the race from start to finish. followed closely by a successful Cabestany and a fantastic Jeroni Fajardo.
The mythical Sheffield Arena was the stage where the best riders in the world of Trial measured themselves under a covered roof on a very varied course, made up of natural areas of logs to angular metal obstacles.
The first to reserve a place in the semi-final in the qualifying phase was Fujinami after defeating the debutant Jorge Casales, whose brilliant driving was conditioned by nerves and he made more mistakes than necessary. Both Fajardo and Dabill managed to qualify. Raga beat Michael Brown in this first round, while Bou did the same with Loris Gubian in his debut with Ossa and Cabestany beat Jack Challoner.
The negative note of the day was led by Challoner himself, who was also making his debut with Ossa, after suffering a heavy fall that caused him to break four fingers on his right hand.
, fifth In the next round, Dabill , finally sixth, and Adam Raga were left out after a time jump-off, fifth. Bou, Cabestany, Fajardo and Fujinami would face each other in the final.
The fight was intense between Bou and Cabestany until the last section, however the Tarragona native could not beat the reigning champion and had to settle for a well-fought second place on the podium.
On the other hand, Fajardo and Fujinami also fought until the end to get into the places of honor, but the Japanese, very conditioned by a recent knee injury, looked practically without strength in the last section and gave up the third position to Fajardo.
The second of the five races on the calendar will be held on January 25 in the French town of Marseille.
Text: Trialworld
Photos: FIM / G2F Media
DECLARATIONS
Toni Bou: “It has been very important to start the season with this victory and continue the momentum that we are fighting for to the maximum. It will be a tough championship because with only four zones in each final and starting them with the counters at zero, it will be difficult to make a difference. Here in Sheffield we saw it clearly, it was an easy test but it was also easy to make small mistakes, difficult to recover against a strong rival like Albert [Cabestany] .”
Takahisa Fujinami: “When I tore the ligaments in my knee I ruled out surgery as the recovery would have prevented me from being in the X-Trial World Championship and I was also compromised by the outdoor. So I opted to work on the muscles.
I’ve only trained for a week and I’ve arrived here with my knee at 75% of its condition. Every section I overcame was a relief but on the last step of the night the knee was knocked out and there I lost the podium.”
JorgeCasales:
“It was a good debut although I was more nervous and tense than usual in the sections. It’s time to keep working to improve.”
Adam Raga:
“I’m physically depleted and I didn’t get into the final due to a tie-break in time. I’m already thinking about the next test.”
SHEFFIELD INDOOR TRIAL CLASSIFICATION 2014
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