Toni tops Boucelona!
By TMX Archives on 12th Feb 09
TONI Bou virtually secured the 2009 SPEA FIM World Indoor Trials Championship with a stunning win in Barcelona on Saturday evening. The reigning World Champ lost just 12-marks over the single lap course in the impressive St Jordi Stadium built for the 1992 Olympics that comprised one dual-lane race and ten fierce sections. No-one else was even close. Former champ, Adam Raga, made a dismal start but managed to drag himself up into second place in the end, with Jeroni Fajardo third and Albert Cabestany fourth for an all-Catalan whitewash.
Takahisa Fujinami was simply a victim of the big steps and Britain's Michael Brown found out exactly how intimidating the Spanish sections can be.
The hazards in Barcelona are always set-up the same. You either get up them or you don't. Scores are five or zero and unfortunately on Saturday the section plotters got it wrong and there were just too many fives.
Worse, the big steps were right at the start of each section and a succession of instant failures does not make for a good entertaining trial.
The opening dual section races over a big, surprisingly tricky section down the centre of the big arena, saw Fajardo beat Brown in the opening race while Bou got his evening under way with a clean ride as he beat Cabestany.
But the opening section unfortunately set the scene for the short, sharp programme which comprised a single live final with no qualifier, the whole show over and done with in one and a half hours. The first step was about two-feet inside the Ins cards and Michael Brown's attempt got exactly that far. Fajardo then caused a surprise with a nice-looking clean before Raga failed the first step as did Fujigas. Cabestany fired the big Sherco four-stroke for a deserved clean and then the big surprise was Bou's failure.
The second section brought the first five contenders to an instant stop on the opening step before Bou showed his superior technique with an amazing ride for a single dab.
Now into his stride Bou easily cleaned the fourth, joined by Fuji, Raga and Fajardo who was going really well at this stage, well in touch with Bou.
The starting order was switched after the fourth section with Fajardo gaining in theory going from second, to next to last in the running order. The huge Telefonica staircase saw Michael Brown work up a sweat and he worked the Sherco stroker up and then down to the applause of the crowd but unfortunately out of time, so it was another max for the Scarborough lad. Cabestany also fived this while Fajardo and Fuji lost one each on time.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2009
WORLD INDOOR TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 3 Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, SPAIN (Feb 8)
OVERALL: 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa HRC) 12, 2 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 21, 3 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 25, 4 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 26, 5 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa HRC) 31, 6 Michael Brown (GB - Sherco) 44.
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Bou 22 points, 2 Cabestany 16, 3 Raga 16, 4 Fujinami 13, 5 Fajardo 9, 6 BROWN 5, 7 Dougie LAMPKIN 4, 8 Loris Gubian 1.
NEXT ROUND: February 28 Bolzano, ITALY.
Former World Champion and local Catalan ace Adam Raga didn't have the best of starts but he pulled himself together and finished second ousting Albert Cabestany to third.