the Palau Sant Jordi At the halfway point of the championship after the visit to England and France, the Indoor Trial World Championship arrived in Spain in a setting as mythical and demanding as the Palau Sant Jordi (Barcelona).
With the incentive that for most top riders it is their “home race” and with the red-hot qualification after Adam Raga’s victory in Pau, the outlook was one of maximum expectation and in Barcelona an epic duel was expected between the main favourites: Bou and Raga.
It was an exciting afternoon for off-road lovers. The Palau Sant Jordi once again merged two great shows, Trial and Indoor Enduro, in the same event that was also televised live on Teledeporte. Another important milestone was the debut of Jaime Busto. The 17-year-old Basque rider was making his debut in the Indoor World Championship as a guest for this race, also making his debut in the colours of the official Repsol Honda Team.
The afternoon began with the dreaded qualifying round, where eight drivers face five zones to play for four places in the final round. Once again the course was extremely demanding and deserved full concentration so as not to make mistakes, especially among the big favourites, where a mistake can become a fatal burden for a short championship with little margin for recovery.
In this way, Jaime Busto, Eddie Karlsson, James Dabill and Alexandre Ferrer made their passage through the areas.
All of them, without exception, accumulated the maximum penalty in the five zones. Therefore, their passport to the final round depended on the records signed by the four favorites: Bou, Raga, Fajardo and Cabestany.
The one who suffered the most was Jeroni Fajardo, who could only start a “two” from the fourth zone; enough to surpass the predecessor drivers in the calculation of this first phase. Cabestany also had complications, but signed a partial of 19 points that also assured him the pass to the last round.
QThe two big favourites, Bou and Raga, had no problems. Bou was better, with only four points, but Raga, with ten, gave a complete driving recital and left clear evidence that he was not going to make things easy for his rival in the last round.
The final phase began. The result of the races determined the starting order, where the most affected was Raga, who had to open the six zones proposed for this round. He was followed by Cabestany, followed by Fajardo and Bou.
The key to the race would be in the first area, of containers and one of the most difficult. Raga added a fiasco and regretted after the race that he had not had the reference of other riders for this area. The only one who would manage to pass it would be Bou, adding two penalty points (1 of them for time).
In the second zone, Bou continued to stand out passing cleanly, while Raga added two more points to his card. In the third, one point each, both per time. In the fourth, Raga had a one-point lead over his rival. It would be in the fifth zone where Fajardo managed to get out of the fiasco in this round, scoring a “two”, giving him a minimal advantage over Cabestany in the fight for the podium. The leading duo, meanwhile, continued their frantic fight: two points for Raga and one for Bou.
With one zone to go before the end of the race, Raga still had a chance of victory. He had to pass the area cleanly, and he did. His rival, Toni Bou, managed to escape the pressure of not committing a fiasco and scored a single point that gave him a hard-fought victory against a tireless competitor like Raga. In this area would be where Fajardo would lose the podium to Cabestany after adding a fiasco.
After this fourth race and with two to play, Toni Bou enjoys a wide lead of 13 points at the top of the provisional standings that allows him to close in on his ninth consecutive indoor world title. although Raga, who does not depend on himself, will not make it easy for him and mistakes can be costly.
Next week the drivers will be in Austria for the penultimate round of the calendar.
RESULTS
DECLARATIONS
Toni Bou: After the last race, I really wanted to win again. I was very confident with my form, but also everyone was able to see the great level that Adam Raga has shown, so a win here in Barcelona tastes much better. I think I had a great race today in a very technical trial, nothing particularly impossible, at the height of the World Championship.
Adam Raga: “We put in a good performance today. From the first lap we rode very fine and, then in the final, I made a five in the first section, with the handicap of starting first. In the end, they have only separated us by four points from victory. We have to be very happy because we are in a good line of results. Sometimes you win and sometimes you come second, but I repeat that I think we should be satisfied with the way we are riding, as today we could have won perfectly, but my rival did well and those four points finally made the difference. The fact of having to open the areas has conditioned me especially in the first area, a very complicated area. Perhaps, if I had been able to see someone do it, I would have had more references, but that’s no excuse. I’m happy with how everything went and how well the bike went. Now it’s time to move forward and maintain this same line.”
Jaime Busto: I am very happy to have participated in the Barcelona Trial. I felt quite good on the bike but it was difficult for me to open the sections, because I had never competed in an X-Trial Grand Prix before and I noticed that I lacked that experience. The level of the zones has been very high and I’m proud to have been among these champions.
