Boutiful Sheffield
By TMX Archives on 14th Jan 10
REIGNING World Champion Toni Bou overcame a scare when he found himself in the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) at the Sheffield Indoor Trial on Saturday night but the Repsol Montesa rider remained cool to stay in the game and went on to romp to victory in the opening round of the 2010 FIM Indoor Trial World Championship.
And while Sheffield hero Dougie Lampkin had an excellent ride, eventually being eliminated just before the final round, Leeds boy James Dabill had the indoor ride of his life to not only qualify for the final stage but to make the podium, beating his Gas Gas team leader Adam Raga on a tie-break.
The all-new scoring system (see separate story) which has been implemented to try and spice-up the show both for spectators on the night and for TV, proved to be a bone of contention with the riders but, following an intensive meeting before the event they knew that they just had to get on with it. So, after the initial introductions, when all ten contenders circled the arena on the first level ‘balcony' before descending down through the crowd stairways, it was into the Qualifier.
The Qualifying format was basically that all ten riders tackled five sections. The riders were paired, by ballot, and the first pair rode section one, then the second pair rode section two, etc, etc. This was repeated until all contenders had ridden all five sections, after which the last two riders were eliminated.
WORLD INDOOR TRIALS
CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 1 – Sheffield Arena, Sheffield, BRITAIN
OVERALL (Scores TX2 + TX3): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 5 + 0 = 5 marks lost, 2 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 11 + 0 = 11, 3 James DABILL (GB - Gas Gas) 13 + 2 = 15, 4 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 13 + 2 = 15.
TX3 (4 sects): 1 Bou 5, 2 Cabestany 11, 3 DABILL 13, 4 Raga 13.
TX2 (3 sect + Lane Race): 1 DABILL clean (25.6 sec), 2 Bou clean (28 sec), 3 Cabestany clean (29.7 sec), 4 Raga clean (31.2 sec). Eliminated: 5 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) clean (39.3 sec), 6 Dougie LAMPKIN (GB - Beta) 5 ml (30.2 sec).
TX1 (Lane Races): 1 LAMPKIN (beat Bou), 2 DABILL (beat Fajardo), 3 Cabestany (beat Fujinami), 4 Raga (beat Brown).
LAST CHANCE SECTION: 5 Bou clean (20.4 sec), 6 Fajardo clean (21 sec). Eliminated: 7 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) clean (31.7 sec), 8 Michael BROWN (GB - Sherco) clean (35.5 sec).
QUALIFICATION (5 sects): 1 Bou clean, 2 Fajardo 2 marks lost, 3 Fujinami 3, 4 Raga 6, 5 LAMPKIN 6, 6 DABILL 9, 7 Cabestany 13, 8 BROWN 17. Eliminated: 9 Alexz WIGG (GB - Beta) 19, 10 Loris Gubian (F - Gas Gas) 25.
NEXT ROUND: January 23 – Palais des Sports, Marseilles, FRANCE.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2010
It's oh-so-easy for Toni Bou who all-but made the Repsol Montesa talk on his way to yet another Sheffield win.