Toni Bou takes his second consecutive win of the season in a particularly tough and even race
FIM X-Trial World Champion
Toni Bou
has achieved an epic victory in the second round of the season held at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier that has been especially spectacular and demanding with the participants and has led to a lot of emotion and equality since both the triumph and the other podium positions and the rest of the final classification, They have been decided by small differences in scores.
In the final, Bou beat Adam Raga by a margin of only five points, which had the second and fifth sections as turning points, as in the second, the TRS rider was charged with a five, while the Repsol Montesa Honda rider was penalized one and in the penultimate of the six sections, Bou went to zero and Raga penalized two points.
Precisely Adam Raga had been the best in the semi-final round in which James Dabill (Beta) ended up achieving third place, which is the third podium of his sporting career in the speciality and he did so by a narrow margin of 2 points over Bincaz (Scorpa) and Miquel Gelabert (Sherco) who have once again shown that the young talents of the world X-Trial are growing rapidly.
With this result, Gelabert automatically qualifies for the third round of the Championship to be held in Toulouse next Friday.
Jeroni Fajardo
(Gas Gas) was the sixth classified since three fives in his second passage through the zones, have ruled him out for the fight for the first places.
His teammate,
Jaime Busto
, who had just finished second in the opening round of the season, had a fateful night, accumulating the heaviest score of the first round, including crashes and bike changes. Along with him, Alexandre Ferrer (Sherco) and Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa) were the riders who did not pass the first phase of the competition.
MotoGP rider Alex Rins was one of the almost 5,000 spectators who filled the stands at the Sud de France Arena.
XTRIAL MONTPELLIER STATEMENTS
Toni Bou (1st):
“Today was an important victory and especially tough as both the second round and the final proved to be very demanding. In the first area of the second round I made three attempts to enter and I wore myself out a lot without being able to overcome the obstacle at the beginning that no one was able to overcome. My back has started to give me some discomfort due to the effort that the three attempts have put into me. In addition, Adam made things very difficult for me in the final and the level of the race was very high. Wins like today’s are what make the difference in the Championship.”
Adam Raga (2nd):
“It was a very high-level event and I’m really satisfied with the result because I had a chance to win until the end and I was the best in the second round. This second place is the best way to face a month of January that looks really intense with three races in three weeks”.
James Dabill (3rd):
“Returning to the podium is great news that makes me very happy and shows that we are doing a very good job. The new bike works really well and I’ve adapted perfectly to it. It’s a great day that I want to dedicate to my family and everyone who has trusted me and supports me.”
The third round of the FIM X-Trial World Championship will be held in Toulouse on January 19th.
