Victory for Toni Bou in the opening round of the 2019 X-Trial World Championship after an intense duel with Adam Raga until the last section. Jeroni Fajardo, guest rider in this race, was third.
More than 5,400 people gathered at the Sport Arena in Budapest to see the best riders in the world of Trial in action. With the absence of Miquel Gelabert due to injury, replaced by Dan Peace, and a line-up of four guests, including Fujinami and Fajardo, the rivalry on the Hungarian course was served.
Budapest has premiered a novelty in the competition format as the third place has been settled in a final between the two second classified of the second round which in this case, have been the teammates in Gas Gas, Jeroni Fajardo and Jaime Busto. A crash of the latter in the second section tipped the balance in favour of Fajardo who rode more effectively in the rest of the sections in which Busto also had a problem with the tyre of his bike.
In the grand final, we witnessed a new chapter in the duel between Bou and Raga. Bou started by conceding 3 points to one for Raga in the first zone, but the TRS rider fell in the second and after passing the third both to zero, the fourth marked the differences with a new 5 from Raga to a 1 for Bou. In the penultimate section, the tables were turned and it was Bou who took a five for Raga’s three points, but the zero point draw in the last section gave the victory to the World Champion by 10 points to 14.
Benoit Bincaz, who starred in an effective second round, staying two points away from the fight for the podium, took fifth place in the final ahead of the Spaniard Jorge Casales, who had an effective first round.
The three riders who were knocked out of contention in the first round were James Dabill, Takahisa Fujinami and young Briton Dan Peace.
Toni Bou (1st):
“Starting the season with a win is the best way to do it, but the truth is that today’s final was very demanding with a couple of really tricky sections. In fact, the whole trial has been quite hard. This victory makes me doubly happy because I couldn’t compete here last year because of an injury. Physically I felt quite good despite the rib injury I suffered in December and this motivates me especially to compete in Barcelona in two weeks’ time.”
Adam Raga (2nd):
“It’s a pity that the victory slipped away by very little, but I was fighting until the end and this is the most important thing. Despite this, I think that second place is a good start to the season and, above all, the sensations have been good in areas where I have had to give everything”.
Jeroni Fajardo (3rd):
“I was just one point away from entering the final because of the fall in the second round, but I recovered quickly and third place is a good reward. My performance and the victory in the final for third place show that I can opt for the podium in any event.”
The second round of the FIM X-Trial World Championship will be the Barcelona round to be held at the Palau Sant Jordi on February 3rd.
FULL RESULTS X-TRIAL BUDAPEST 2019
