No bull from the Spanish!
By TMX Archives on 4th Oct 07
THE Spanish squad were expected to win the 2007 Trial des Nations, staged in the Isle of Man by the Peveril club on Sunday, but even their closest rivals were blown-away by the sheer margin of victory.
Newly-crowned World Champ Toni Bou, former champAdam Raga, Albert Cabestany and Jeroni Fajardo combined to actuallyclean the entire 18-section opening lap, truly inspired riding whichmade a mockery of the course, which was tough enough to take a mighty127 marks from the fourth-placed French squad - yet still Ragacommented that the event was too easy!
There was a day-long squabble between the old foes, the French andItalian squads, resolved in the French squad's favour, just, but aneven bigger and more important battle developed between the two teamswho would fight for the minor podium places - Britain and Japan. At theend of the opening circuit, the Brits, Dougie Lampkin, Graham Jarvis,James Dabill and late-recruit Michael Brown, were just shading it on atotal of 16 with the Japanese team just three marks in arrears.
Now to be fair to the Brits, the riders didn't domuch wrong at all in the sections on the final circuit, although thetactics employed over managing their overall time faults couldcertainly be questioned, but the Japanese four-man team was riding outof its skin!
The all-four-stroke squad was led by TakahisaFujinami and backed-up by Kenichi Kuroyama, Fumitaka Nozaki andTomoyuki Ogawa and they were a revelation. The Brits were most pundits'favourites to shade the runner-up berth, especially with their noses infront after the first circuit, but there was to be no denying theJapanese who fully-deserved their place on the second step with astunning second lap.
In the International class it was the Belgiansquad who were victorious. A mixture of experience (Jan Cardinaels andMichael Vukcevik) and youth (Maxime Mathy and Jordae Vandekasteele)celebrated a convincing victory over the enthusiastic Norwegians withthe laid-back Aussies third.
TRIAL des NATIONS
Douglas, ISLE OF MAN (Peveril MCC)
ADULT SOLO
1 SPAIN - Total 7 (Toni Bou (Montesa), Albert Cabestany (Sherco), Jeroni Fajardo (Beta), Adam Raga (Gas Gas)).
2 JAPAN - Total 39 (Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa), Kenichi Kuroyama (Yamaha), Fumitaka Nozaki (Yamaha), Tomoyuki Ogawa (Honda)).
3 GREAT BRITAIN - Total 45 (James DABILL (Montesa), Graham JARVIS (Sherco), Dougie LAMPKIN (Montesa), Michael BROWN (Beta)).
4 FRANCE - Total 127 (Jerome Bethune (Beta), Christophe Bruand (Sherco), Bruno Camozzi (Gas Gas), Nicolas Gontard (Gas Gas)).
5 ITALY - Total 131 (Diego Bosis (Montesa), Fabio Lenzi (Montesa), Daniele Maurino (Beta), Michele Orizio (Scorpa)).
6 UNITED STATES - Total 274 (Chris Florin (Gas Gas), Will Ibsen (Scorpa), Patrick Smage (Sherco), Cody Webb (Sherco)).
7 GERMANY - Total 325 (Marijan Griebel (HMFuture), Christian Kregeloh (Sherco), Jochen Schaefer (Sherco), JanJunklewitz (Montesa)).
8 SWEDEN - Total 349 (Emil Gyllenhammar (Gas Gas), Fredrik Johansson (Beta), Anders Nilsson (Montesa), Adam Thiger (Gas Gas)).
9 IRELAND - Total 409 (Gareth ANDREWS (Beta), Robert ANDREWS (Gas Gas), Sean DOYLE (Sherco), Andrew PERRY (Gas Gas)).
INTERNATIONAL CLASS
1 BELGIUM - Total 164 (Jan Cardinaels (Montesa),Maxime Mathy (Gas Gas), Jordan Vandekasteele (Gas Gas), MichaelVukcevic (Sherco)).
2 NORWA - Total 198 (Martin Hemmer (Gas Gas), Fredrik Strand Larsen (Sherco), Mandon Moi (Beta), Lars Holland Mork (Gas Gas)).
3 AUSTRALIA - Total 230 (Adrian Harry (Beta), Michael Byrne (Gas Gas), Boyd Willcocks (Beta), Kevin Zarczynski (Sherco)).
4 SWITZERLAND - Total 284 (Laurent Daengeli (GasGas), Pascal Geiser (Montesa), Gilles Seuret (Honda), ChristianTeuscher (Gas Gas)).
5 HOLLAND - Total 300 (Rodney Heymans (Beta), Ewoud Lalkens (Sherco), John Van Veelen (Beta), Alex Van Den Broek (Honda)).
6 POLAND - Total 364 (Karol Ceremuga (Sherco),Sebastian Cyrwus (Gas Gas), Przemyslaw Kaczmarczyk (Sherco), RafalLuberda (Sherco)).
7 PORTUGAL - Total 405 (Andre Garcia (Scorpa), Pedro Maia (Sherco), Joao Ribeiro (Beta), Pedro Sousa (Gas Gas)).
8 CANADA - Total 412 (Paul-Yvan Belanger (Beta), Jonathan English (Montesa), Maxime Gobiel (Gas Gas), Jordan Szoke (Beta)).
9 LATVIA - Total 423 (Renars Agarskis (Sherco), Kaspars Kulikovs (Gas Gas), Edgars Salts (Sherco), Kaspars Vernieks (Sherco)).
10 LUXEMBOURG - Total 446 (Laurent Baatz (Beta), Christian Daleiden (Sherco), Ken Mousty (Montesa), Ben Stoffel (Beta)).
For full story and pictures, see T+MX NEWS, Friday, October 5, 2007.