Viva Espana
By TMX Archives on 2nd Oct 08
IN much the same way as the Americans roared to victory at Donington Park, the mighty Spanish team swept to a demolishing win at the Trial Des Nations held in the small principality of Andorra. Headed by recently crowned individual World Champion, Toni Bou, and supported by Adam Raga, Albert Cabestany and Jeroni Fajardo, who all rank in the World's top five, Spain romped to a 21-mark victory over Japan despite having made a nervous start in front of what was almost a home crowd.
As had been the case on the Isle of Man 12-months earlier, the Great Britain team lost out on the runner-up spot to Japan after a day-long battle with their close rivals over an extended course set high in the mountains. Team GB, consisting of Dougie Lampkin, James Dabill, Michael Brown and Graham Jarvis, who made it to the event despite his flight being cancelled, actually headed the Spanish favorites after the first four sections.
However just one hazard later, Great Britain's charge was about to come to a premature end as Lampkin crashed back heavily off one of the many steep rock faces and in doing so badly injured his ribs and leg in the resulting fall. Dougie did his best to soldier on, but was forced to seek treatment from the event doctor a few sections later. Heavy strapping to his left hand side and a painkilling injection allowed him to rejoin his team-mates, but in truth his contribution for the remainder of the first lap was limited.
The venue at La Rabassa, which sits high above the hosting town of Sant Julia De Loria has been the scene of several successful World events, however the spread-out nature of the course somehow lost the atmosphere normally associated with this team event.
The first eight sections were located in a steep wooded area just across the road from the paddock at the Olympic standard gun club. Heavy rain on Friday night had left these rocky zones greasy, and made them responsible for the majority of marks lost by the leading three teams.
From here the riders set out on their extended tour that took them way across the valley to take in three totally exposed dry rock hazards, set on the steep roadside bankings. These proved of little consequence to the front-runners, but offered spectators spectacular and panoramic views of the unhindered landscape below. Two easy, almost Scottish stream sections followed before the action then shifted to four more dry hazards at the summit of the mountain. The lap finished with a single man-made affair back at the entrance of the paddock.
By the end of the first lap of 18 sections, Spain had already begun to stretch their advantage despite some early unforced errors. Their total of 15 marks reflected the fact that the team had gone unpenalised through the back 11 hazards.
Japan had also strengthened their attack as they approached the punch card change, and were gifted an intermediate second place as the injured Lampkin fived the last section of the lap.
The Bou brigade were simply awesome on their second visit to the drying zones, dropping marks in just three sections, when the best three scores in each hazard were taken into consideration, as is the case in this event. Spain's heaviest loss came at section five, but the two marks they dropped here was considerably better than the 10 lost by Japan, and the 11 marks incurred by Great Britain. Ironically Lampkin's five at this section was his only loss on the second lap, as the gritty Yorkshireman dug deep in an attempt to make some amends for his injury-impaired morning performance.
Japan produced a strong closing lap to increase their lead over the Brits, to take their second successive runner-up spot. Behind the leading trio the fight for fourth was a fierce affair between France and Italy. The Italians produced an incredible second lap, which was nearly half that of their first lap total. This was enough to snatch fourth away from the French in what was a dramatic close to an otherwise quiet competition.
In the International class the Czech Republic made a winning return after having missed the event in 2007. On observation the Czechs were clear victors, however a hefty 24 marks on time brought them much closer to eventual runner-up Norway, who were promoted above Australia when the team from the southern hemisphere also suffered late time penalties.
The popular Irish team, who are past winners of this class, could only manage fourth on the day, as the hosts Andorra completed the top five in the International category.
MENS TRIAL des NATIONS
Sant Julia de Loria, ANDORRA
MAIN EVENT
1 SPAIN 15 + 4 = 19 (Toni Bou (Montesa), Albert Cabestany (Sherco), Jeroni Fajardo (Beta) & Adam Raga (Gas Gas))
2 JAPAN 28 + 12 = 40 (Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa), Kenichi Kuroyama (Yamaha), Fumitaka Nozaki (Yamaha) & Tomoyuki Ogawa (Honda))
3 GREAT BRITAIN 30 + 18 = 48 (Michael BROWN (Beta), James DABILL (Montesa), Graham JARVIS (Sherco) & Dougie LAMPKIN (Beta))
4 ITALY 86 + 48 = 134 (Matteo Grattarola (Sherco), Fabio Lenzi (Montesa), Daniele Maurino (Gas Gas) & Michele Orizio (Scorpa))
5 FRANCE 79 + 65 = 144 (Christophe Bruand (Scorpa), Bruno Camozzi (Gas Gas), Nicolas Gontard (Gas Gas) & Loris Gubian (Sherco))
6 SWEDEN 170 + 143 = 313 (Henrik Cristiansen (Montesa), Emil Gyllenhammar (Beta), Fredrik Johansson (Beta) & Adam Thiger (Gas Gas))
7 UNITED STATES 171 + 156 = 328 (Chris Florin (Gas Gas), Ron Commo (Beta), Cody Webb (Sherco) & Keith Wineland (Beta))
8 GERMANY 210 + 199 = 409 (Marijan Griebel (Montesa), Jan Junklewitz (Sherco) & Jan Peters (Beta))
INTERNATIONAL CLASS
1 CZECH REPUBLIC 44 + 66 + 24 = 134 (Pavel Balas (Gas Gas), Martin Kroustyek (Beta), Petr Masek (Montesa) & Jiri Svoboda (Beta))
2 NORWAY 78 + 70 = 148 (Frederik Larsen (Sherco), Mandon Moi (Beta), Lars Mork (Gas Gas) & Hakon Pedersen (Sherco))
3 AUSTRALIA 79 + 61 + 11 = 151 (Kyle Middleton (Gas Gas), Neil Price (Beta), Colin Zarczynski (Sherco) & Kevin Zarczynski (Sherco))
4 IRELAND 106 + 72 = 178 (Gareth ANDREWS (Beta), Michael BURTON (Gas Gas), Sean DOYLE (Gas Gas) & Andrew PERRY (Gas Gas))
5 ANDORRA 116 + 105 = 221 (Jonathan Almarcha (Gas Gas), Albert Cabanes (Beta), Xavier Cristina (Montesa) & Pere Marti (Sherco)
6 FINLAND 101 + 121 + 23 = 245 (Jussi Haapanen (Sherco), Henri Himmanen (Beta), Jussi Jokinen (Sherco) & Tomi Luhtasuo (Sherco))
7 SWITZERLAND 163 + 138 = 301 (Laurent Daengeli (Gas Gas), Pascal Geiser (Honda), Thierry Graber (Gas Gas) & Christian Teuscher (Gas Gas))
8 AUSTRIA 162 + 182 = 344 (Markus Adamec (Sherco), Clemens Kolland (Gas Gas), Philip Kornheer (Sherco) & Richard Rosenstatter (Gas Gas))
9 POLAND 88 + 157 = 345 (Karol Ceremuga (Gas Gas), Sebastian Cyrwus (Sherco), Przemylaw Kaczmarczyk (Sherco) & Gabriel Marcinow (Sherco))
10 PORTUGAL 182 + 181 = 363 (Andre Garcia (Scorpa), Pedro Maia (Gas Gas), Joao Ribeiro (Gas Gas) & Pedro Sousa (Gas Gas))
11 SOUTH AFRICA 205 + 184 = 389 (Andrew Blane (Beta), Mark Fox (Beta), Russell Heger (Beta) & Dennis Lategan (Beta))
12 GUATEMALA 197 + 202 = 399 (Diego Ordonez (Sherco), Luis Palmieri (Sherco) & Daniel Santos (Sherco))
13 VENEZUELA 192 + 213 = 405 (Luis Aulestia (Gas Gas), Joel Ortiz (Montesa), Hernando Rivas (Montesa) & Jose Ignacio Rivas (Beta))
14 LATVIA 206 + 203 = 409 (Renars Agarskis (Sherco), Lauris Klebahs (Gas Gas), Kaspars Kulikovs (Gas Gas) & Kaspars Vernieks (Sherco))
15 CANADA 210 + 201 = 411 (Jonathan English (Montesa), Maxime Gobiel (Gas Gas) & Derek Thomas (Scorpa))
16 LUXEMBOURG 212 + 201 = 413 (Laurent Baatz (Beta), Christian Daleiden (Sherco) & Ken Mousty (Sherco))
LADIES TRIAL DES NATIONS
Sant Julia de Loria, ANDORRA
1 SPAIN 18 + 13 = 31 (Mireia Conde (Beta), Sandra Gomez (Gas Gas) & Laia Sanz (Montesa))
2 GERMANY 24 + 21 = 45 (Iris Kramer (Scorpa), Rosita Leotta (Beta) & Ina Wilde (Gas Gas)
3 GREAT BRITAIN 23 + 23 = 46 (Maria CONWAY (Beta), Rebecah COOK (Gas Gas) & Donna FOX (Sherco))
4 FRANCE 34+ 40 = 74 (Blandine Guillaud (Gas Gas), Maryline Journet (Gas Gas) & Sandrine Juffet (Gas Gas))
5 NORWAY 61 + 44 = 105 (Lene Dyrkorn (Beta), Connie Ludvigsen (Sherco) & Iselin Mork (Gas Gas))
6 AUSTRALIA 57 + 62 = 119 (Lonie Brooke (Sherco), Kristie McKinnon (Scorpa) & Michele Owen (Sherco))
7 UNITED STATES 64 + 57 = 121 (Caroline Allen (Gas Gas), Sarah Duke (Gas Gas) & Louise Forsley (Sherco))
8 JAPAN 62 + 68 = 130 (Chiemi Haseyama (Sherco) & Maya Takahashi (Montesa))
9 ITALY 77 + 75 = 152 (Martina Balducchi (Beta), Michela Bonnin (Gas Gas) & Sara Trentini (Beta))
10 CANADA 81 + 88 = 169 (Heather Wall (Montesa) & Christy Williams (Gas Gas))
11 PORTUGAL 98 + 103 = 201 (Ligia Matos (Sherco), Fatima Silva (Sherco) & Rita Vieira (Gas Gas))
Jeroni Fajardo, Adam Raga, Toni Bou and Albert Cabestany celebrate their victory.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2008