Toni Bou (Repsol Honda Trial Team) gave a new riding lesson in Chalon-Sur-Saône and dominated the second round of the FIM X-Trial World Championship. It is enough to look at the scores to confirm the dominance of the 17-time World Champion: he has won the First Round with only one penalty point, he has done the same in the Second Round in which he has not penalized a single point and, in the final, he has totaled 7 points to the 17 of Gabriel Marcelli (Repsol Honda Trial Team) and the 22 of Jaime Busto (GasGas) and, In addition, he has been the only one of the 3 to overcome the fifth and sixth zones.
In fact, Bou has channeled the final after the first three sections in which he accumulated 2 penalty points for Marcelli’s 5 and Busto’s 7 who, after taking a five in the third zone, has added the same penalty in the rest of the sections to finish third. Marcelli improved Busto’s performances in the third and fourth sections and thus secured second place. Meanwhile, Bou has added 4 points in the last two zones to the 10 of each of his rivals and has put an end to a spectacular night.
Toby Martyn (Montesa) has sentenced his options to enter the final with a 9 in the first round and, in the end, he has added one point less than Benoit Bincaz (Sherco) who has occupied fifth place. For his part, Adam Raga (Sherco) lost all options with the 12 points penalized in the first passage through the zones, Matteo Grattarola (Beta) lost in the second round the possibilities of continuing to advance and ended up with a mechanical problem in the last section. Finally, Hugo Dufrese (GasGas) closed the standings in his debut in the 2024 season.
KEY STATEMENTS
Bou (1st): “I’m very happy because tonight I rode at a high level and I got very close to perfection. In the first two rounds, I only penalized one point in 9 zones despite the fact that some of my rivals were relatively close. But when the final came I felt even better, I gave my best and I made the difference from the beginning. It has been a great job by the whole team and we should be proud of it.”
Marcelli (2nd): “I’m satisfied with this second place and especially with my driving. I think I did quite well despite the two mistakes in the last two zones that maybe prevented me from having any chance of victory. Anyway, the points from second place are very good for the championship.”
Bust (3rd): “I rode well in the first two rounds, but in the final everything went to waste when I took a five in the third zone. This leaves me with a certain bittersweet taste. The most positive thing is the fact that we are still on the podium. It’s time to keep training to do better in the next one.”
The third round of the season will be held at the Palais Nikaia in Nice on March 22nd.
X-TRIAL CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE CLASSIFICATION 2024
CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE x-trial 2024
- TONI BOU (MONTESA)
- GABRIEL MARCELLI (MONTESA)
- JAIME BUSTO (GASGAS)
- TOBY MARTYN (MONTESA)
- BENOIT BINCAZ (SHERCO)
- ADAM RAGA (SHERCO)
- MATTEO GRATTAROLA (BETA)
- HUGO DUFRESE (GASGAS)
