Toni Bou has been proclaimed Outdoor Trial World Champion for the fifth time, adding up to a total of ten world titles if we take into account those won indoors. This fifth title has come in one of the most difficult seasons for the rider from Piera, who has gone from dominating all the races, to running into the resurrection of a very strong rival like Adam Raga, which has achieved four very important victories throughout this campaign. The last one, without going any further, on the first day of the G.P. of Europe, after a very intelligent race and anticipating the rain forecast, which completely caught the rider from Montesa and conditioned his result in the test.
This background forced Bou to go out during the second day of the French event to secure the world championship, which was his with only a sixth place. Which is simple, considering that Bou has not finished off the podium in any race throughout 2011. It was therefore a race to secure, both mechanically and physically. However Bou did not want to settle for a mediocre result and needed to get rid of the thorn of a season where, despite never relinquishing the lead, he had been overtaken on too many occasions by his greatest rival: Adam Raga. Finally, Bou closed the outdoor world championship with seven victories to his credit, compared to four for the Gas Gas rider, who was superior in the second half of the championship.
Both pilots arrived in France to fight for the 40 points that were up for grabs with a margin of only 13 points between the two. Looking at the statistics, anything could happen, but the logical thing was for Bou to win the title, regardless of what Raga did, since he did not depend on himself and the margins of the first four riders compared to the rest are usually very wide.
After a bittersweet Saturday, where Raga achieved a great victory, Bou went all out on Sunday; his concentration was maximum from the first moment of the race despite the adverse weather conditions, consecutively linking “zeros” until zone fourteen, where he dropped a point. Raga had problems in the first and sixth sections, which Bou took advantage of to open a valuable gap of 11 points with the Gas Gas that allowed him to secure the title and most likely the victory in this last race.
Raga, aware that he had a very complicated task, continued to drive to give the maximum of himself, managing to sign a second pass through the fifteen sections that was truly spectacular, with only 2 points, to Bou’s 7. The overall calculation reflected a clear victory for the rider from Piera by a comfortable margin of 6 points which, obviously, meant the achievement of his fifth consecutive world title. Raga, despite his great fight, settled for a positive runner-up finish in a truly good year for him.
Third place went once again to Cabestany, who fulfilled his goal of snatching fourth place overall from Jeroni Fajardo, who for his part has had a weekend to forget, with a fourth place on Saturday and disqualification on Sunday. The rider from Ossa, therefore, has not been able to take advantage of the 40 points that Cabestany put on a platter when he did not go to the G.P. in Japan, having to settle for fifth place in the final in his first year with the mythical brand of the shamrock.
On this second day Fujinami, who had nothing to play for as the third place was assured, was fourth with a record of points in no man’s land. On Saturday, he was a team player, indicating the best lines to Bou on the slippery French terrain at the start of the rain.
It was a very nice fight for sixth place in the final between Gubian, Brown and Dabill, who were in a handkerchief and had everything on the line in today’s race. In the end, the winner of this particular fight was Brown, who signed his best result in the world championship and left the first official Beta rider with a bittersweet taste. James Dabill, who was only able to take the EVO to eighth place in the final, behind its two great rivals.
In Junior, with Alfredo Gómez already crowned champion on Saturday and debuting in the absolute category on Sunday, the interest was to see how the runner-up between Moret and Tarrés would be resolved. The first was supposed to make up for a bad result on Saturday, but everything was to be decided in Sunday’s sections; At last Moret was 3 points away from achieving his goal in the race, as third place in the race only served to tie on points in the provisional standings with Tarrés and lose in the tiebreaker, due to the fact that he has one victory to his credit, to none of the Montesa rider.
Toni Bou: “When you win a title, you’re never sure if you’re going to win another one. We’ve worked all year to get here and this was the tenth time I’ve experienced such an immense moment. Things went very well for us today, with a very good first half of the season and another win. That’s how I wanted to win this championship in which, as always, there has been a lot of pressure. It doesn’t matter if the difference between the opponents is bigger or smaller, in a World Cup there are always nerves and tension.”
Adam Raga: “This time the chance to start first went quite well for me on Saturday
Because, even though I had to open the sections and take a lot of risks, I was able to avoid the rain that fell in the middle of the race. I think on the first day we had a very complete race and I’m very satisfied with my riding. Our gap to Bou in the standings became 10 points, so on Sunday we had to keep putting the pressure on him. The goal was to go out and win again and finish the championship with another victory, but it was not to be. Even so, I’m happy with the runner-up position, mainly because of how it was achieved and the level we showed. This will give us a lot of confidence going into fighting for the title next year, both me and the whole Gas Gas team, who I want to thank for the work they have done, especially James, Bruno, Sam, Isma and Dougie.”
Final standings European GP (World)
Final standings European GP (Junior)
Final standings GP Europe (Youth)
Text: Trialworld / Photos: FIM
Read the interview with Toni Bou after the world title
See the best photos of Toni Bou (from the origins to the 5th Outdoor World Championship)
Watch the videos of the European GP and the title celebration
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BIOGRAPHY OF TONI BOU
Born on 17 October 1986 and living in Piera (Barcelona), Toni Bou started as a Bike Trial rider when he was eight years old. After being proclaimed World Champion of the specialty in his category, in 1999 he made the leap to Trial on motorcycles.
Immersed in the motorcycling specialty, in 2001 he won the Spanish Junior Championship, which was followed by the 250cc European Cup. for promising young people in 2002, and European Champion in 2003. In 2005 he was part of the winning team in the Trial of Nations, was runner-up in Spain in Indoor Trial and fifth in the Outdoor World Championship.
The following year, Bou achieved his first victories in the top category, both indoors (third in the World Championships) and outdoors, where he ended up occupying fifth place again in the final classification of the World Championship.
Joining the ranks of the Repsol Montesa Honda Team in the 2007 season, the rider from Piera won the World Indoor Championship that same year. On the Montesa Cota 4RT, Toni Bou won four of the eight races that made up the Indoor calendar. The high level exhibited placed him among the favorites for the Outdoor Trial World Championship, which he also won with great authority, after achieving nine victories out of a possible eleven. As a final touch, the Repsol rider won the Spanish Indoor Championship and his third victory, all consecutive, as a member of the Spanish team in the Trial of Nations.
The following year, the Repsol rider repeated his title in the Indoor World Championship, and after seven victories in the Outdoor World Championship and five second places, Bou was once again proclaimed absolute King of the discipline for the second consecutive year. At the end of the season, he revalidated the title in the Trial of Nations with Spain, and once again won the Spanish Indoor Trial Championship.
With an increasingly high level, Toni Bou defended both the Indoor and Outdoor Trial World Championships in 2009. He achieved four victories indoors, out of five events, and seven outdoors, out of the eleven that made up the calendar. He ended the season by also winning the national outdoor and indoor titles, as well as winning the Trial of Nations for the fifth time with the Spanish team, closing a historic season in which he won all five titles he competed in.
The Repsol rider faced the 2010 season without lowering his level one iota and has managed to achieve his two main objectives of the season: to repeat his victories in the World Championship, both indoor and outdoor, for the fourth consecutive year. Four wins and a second place in the five races that made up the 2010 World Indoor Championship calendar confirmed his overwhelming dominance of the specialty. With the seventh victory in ten races played in the World Championship at a
The rider from Piera won his fourth consecutive outdoor title.
In the current campaign, Bou has achieved a similar feat, scoring a crushing title in the intense Indoor championship and signing the year with a hotly contested outdoor title. With these two titles Bou has a total of ten world titles and continues to write the history of the sport in golden letters. There are still the National Trial and the World Championship of Nations ahead of him, two highly sought-after titles that Bou already has in his palmares and will try to fight for them in the coming months.
With this title, he has now won eight consecutive World Cups, a figure that confirms him as the best specialist today.
