Raga on a roll
By Team TMX on 8th Jul 15
ADAM Raga is on fire at the moment, the two-time world champion genuinely having the measure of the seemingly unbeatable Toni Bou.
Riding as a privateer on his former factory Gas Gas machine, Adam followed-up four consecutive runner-up berths with a breakthrough win on the second day in France and then kicked-on with a brace of superb victories in Andorra last weekend.
Repsol Montesa No.1 Bou finished as runner-up on both days while Beta's Jeroni Fajardo and Sherco's veteran Albert Cabestany battled it out for third and fourth, sharing the honours.
This all-Spanish quartet were some way ahead of the chasing pack, especially on the opening day when they were followed home by Jorge Casales and Jaime Busto, making it an all-Spanish top six.
Just as in the French round the previous week in Andon, the trial took place at altitude and also in intense heat, up to a sweltering 30 degrees, both conditions throwing up their own issues regarding rider and machine.
The Andorra round was, as usual, based in the town of St Julia de Loria near the Spanish border but the 12 sections were set in a new location on the opposite side of the valley high above the town.
All bar the 12th and final section were based on steep climbs over the rock faces and loose, dusty tracks.
Some championship riders had expressed concern that the sections were too easy and several changes were made before the start. Veteran Cabestany completed his first lap for just one mark which indicates that the championship riders may have had a point.
But he dropped that dab on the second section that actually saw only three cleans – from Bou, Fajardo and Busto – while eventual winner Raga took a maximum, a score racked-up by 11 of the 15 contenders.
Adam dropped just one more mark, in the eighth section which saw just a single clean by first-lap leader Cabes.
Only the leading four riders kept their scores in single figures and were already well clear of the rest – a gap that would only grow as the laps were reeled off.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICS SEE TMX NEWS, THURSDAY JULY 9, (ISSUE 1979)
