Toni tops top ten
By TMX Archives on 7th Jan 10
LAST call, people, for the Sheffield Indoor Trial which takes place tomorrow, Saturday, January 9, at the Sheffield Arena. As you should know, the event now represents the opening round of the 2010 FIM World Indoor Trials Championship and spectators will get to see no fewer than TEN top riders do battle for Championship points.
World Champion Toni Bou heads the field and he will face competition from what is effectively the top ten riders in the world with fellow Catalans Adam Raga, Jeroni Fajardo and Albert Cabestany plus Japanese ace Takahisa Fujinami and French youngster Loris Gubian the top overseas competition. They will be joined by no fewer than four Brits led by Sheffield legend Dougie Lampkin (pictured), the only rider to have competed in every single Sheffield Indoor events to date, British Champ James Dabill, his pal Michael Brown and southern star Alexz Wigg.
Martin Lampkin will once again set the course and to date Martin has come up with some crackers, always featuring different sections or variations on previous favourites, that the overseas lads enjoy because they offer a change from the usual sections they ride all the time in Spain.
This year the FIM is introducing a new scoring system that sounds extremely complicated but will hopefully work out fine on the night. It is based on a knockout system with the first two riders due to take an early bath after the opening five sections so expect some pretty competitive riding in the races! But as well as the eliminations there will also be a Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) so the excitement level should be kept pretty high all night.
Bou obviously starts as favourite but Raga, back from an operation on an injured knee, will hopefully be out to make a point while Cabestany, always one of the most stylish of Indoor riders, will be looking to make his mark after switching to a two-stroke Sherco for 2010.
Dougie obviously heads the Brits and the Beta rider still feels he has the ammo to give the current top lads a fright. He certainly has the heart for it and the crowd will be right behind him, that's for sure. Dibs, Browny and Wiggy all get their chance to pull-off an upset and maybe a few more Indoor rides.
The half-time entertainment promises to be most interesting with top urban trick cyclist Danny MacAskill whose YouTube clips broke all viewing records. Danny is THE hot property in the trick cycling world and he will surely wow the Sheffield faithful.
Contact the Sheffield Arena on 01142-565656 - you should still be able to pick-up a late ticket on the night but best check first. Doors open at 6pm.