Report: World Trials Championship - Belgium
By John Dickinson on 13th Jul 16
BELGIUM staged the only single day round of the FIM Trial World Championship last Sunday when the town of Comblain au Pont, near Liege, hosted round six of the series.
And with Great Britain promoting round seven with two days of sport this weekend the Belgian result was crucial to what to expect at Tong.
In truth all three results, TrialGP, Trial2 and Trial125 went exactly as expected.
Nine-times champ Toni Bou won TrialGP, edging another three Championship points ahead of rival Adam Raga who once again finished as runner-up.
Brit Jack Price won Trial2, setting up a fantastic chance to win his World Championship on home soil this weekend while young Jack Peace took yet another victory in Trial125 to nail the title and so gets to ride two days in Britain as World Champion!
After a slow start to his day, and the trial was played-out in sweltering heat, Repsol Honda's Toni Bou eased ever closer to an amazing tenth consecutive World title.
Bou, struggling with an injury picked-up in a recent training accident, lagged behind Sherco's Albert Cabestany, Vertigo's Jeroni Fajardo and his own Repsol Honda team mate Takahisa Fujinami after the first of the three laps of 12 sections.
But as ever Bou came back at his rivals to post the two lowest scores of the trial on his second and third circuits to claim an eventual, seemingly inevitable victory by a clear 10 marks.
TRS rider Raga, although just a single mark down on his arch rival after scoring 19 on the opening loop, simply couldn't up his game sufficiently and although he kept Bou in sight on the second lap, Adam unfortunately trailed away last time round as Bou kept up that relentless pressure.
In fact Raga was ultimately fortunate to finish second as veteran Cabestany, who has been off the pace of late, finished the event equal on a total of 55 with Raga.
It took a tie-break to separate the two long-time rivals and after both made 18 cleans it finally resolved itself with most ones, Adam boasting four against the three of Albert.
Jeroni Fajardo just missed the podium after a day long battle with Fujinami but a wayward final circuit over which he dropped four fives in a total of 24 against the 16 of Cabestany foiled that ambition.
Repsol Honda's ‘apprentice' Jaime Busto bagged sixth just ahead of James Dabill who now looks forward to a genuine home round at Tong, not a million miles from his Yorkshire base, on the factory Vertigo.
Popular Swede Eddie Karlsson (Montesa), top French rider Alex Ferrer (Sherco) and young Spanish contender Miquel Gelabert (Sherco) completed the top 10, Gelabert just failing to keep his score in double figures with a total of 104.
The most disappointed riders in TrialGP had to be Beta's Jorge Casales and Gas Gas newcomer Franz Kadlec. Both finished out of the top 10, Casales 12th and Kadlec claiming just a single point in third.
Trial2 saw yet another dominant performance by Britain's Gas Gas ace Jack Price.
In Belgium, with just the one day of competition and no second chance, Jack was straight out of the blocks and shocked his opponents with a fantastic single dab ride on the opening lap, dropped on the seventh hazard.
This put Jack into a lead that he never looked in danger of relinquishing and while he couldn't quite keep up that incredible form he was still the only rider to post three single figure scores to win by a comfortable 10 marks.
Second was another Gas Gas rider, Spain's Arnau Farre, who put together an excellent second lap ride of just five but dropped back to 12 on the final circuit as Price's consistency proved crucial.
The podium was completed by Jack's title rival, Welsh champ Iwan Roberts.
The Beta rider had a frustrating day as following laps of 13 and 15 he then posted a scorcher of a final circuit of just three, proving that he should have been challenging for the lead, not just rescueing a podium.
Meanwhile, Beta riding Dec Bullock was a virtual model of consistency and posted an excellent sixth place, just ahead of Beta riding Cornish ace Toby Martyn as Brits again dominated the top 10.
Already having won a round this year Dan Peace was not on the pace on Sunday and had to settle for 11th on the day. Tom Minta also made it into the top 20 finishing 18th after three steady laps.
The good news is that Jack Price is so far in front of his rivals that, with two scores to drop at the end of the series, he can tie-up the Trial2 Championship this weekend in his home round. It doesn't get much better than that.
