Book your tickets for the Bou Show
By John Dickinson on 6th Dec 13
THE countdown is now well and truly underway for the 2014 Sheffield Arena Trial which will take place on Saturday,January 4.
And in case you didn't know the event – which has now run uninterrupted every year since 1996 – represents the opening round of the 2014 FIM World Indoor X-Trial Championship!
The event remains Britain's only International Indoor Arena Trial and, as such, is your only chance to see 14 times World Champion Toni Bou strutting his stuff Indoors in your home country.
The factory Repsol Montessa rider has now accumulated seven World Indoor titles and matched them with seven Outdoor crowns and you can catch Toni as he sets out to continue his phenominal winning run.
And all the signs are that Bou will continue to dominate.
With the change to no-stop observing rules for the outdoor season in 2013 Toni's old rival Adam Raga mounted a really strong challenge but Adam then faded towards the end of the year as Bou finished strongly like the great champion he is.
The full contracted rider line-up for the 2014 World X-Trial series is Toni Bou, Adam Raga, Albert Cabestany, Jeroni Fajardo, Takahisa Fujinami, James Dabill, Loris Gubian and World Junior champ Jorge Casalas.
Dibs, as you can see, is the only British rider contracted to ride the entire series but Sheffield will benefit from two British wild card riders - and they are the reigning British Trials Champ Michael Brown and 2013 Italian Trials Champ Jack Challoner.
Both will be keen to do well in front of their home fans as a good result could bring further invites in the X-Trial series.
For those of you who are veterans of the Sheffield Motorpoint Arena the big news is that it has recently benefitted from a massive facelift and now features new padded seats complete with armrests and there is also a massive new four-sided screen so that wherever you are seated you won't miss any of the action.
Martin Lampkin will ring the changes again with his sections to keep them fresh and entertaining and the event will be as spectacular as ever.
Remember the date, Saturday, January 4. Book now!