Bou gets head start
By TMX Archives on 10th Jan 14
TONI Bou brushed aside the riders unease at the new head-to-head qualifying system (and the one-mark penalty for sumping on the bashplate in the section) to do what he does best as he won the opening round of the 2014 World X-Trial series at Sheffield last Saturday.
Bou was joined on the podium by his fellow Catalans Albert Cabestany and Jeroni Fajardo, with Barcelona's resident Japanese ace Takahisa Fujinami fourth.
Sheffield got the new X-Trial series away to a noisy start, with more than 5,000 fans keen to enjoy the evening's proceedings which began with a
10-man qualifying round.
This was run under a controversial new format with five individual head-to-head contests.
The five winners of the individual contests went through to the semi-final while the top loser also qualified.
There was a time limit of one minute for each section with a one-mark penalty for exceeding the minute.
First into action were Repsol Montesa teamster Takahisa Fujinami and series newcomer Jorge Casales and they tackled each of the seven sections in turn as a pairing.
The Red Bull section got both riders away to a clean start. The Putoline oil bottles were next and both came to a full stop on the same big step-up.
Fuji then edged ahead on the iron ingots and then increased his advantage on the wooden shapes.
Casales was putting up a good show though displaying plenty of technical skills and after negotiating the big sleepers section the young Catalan cleaned the skips, a feat only later, emulated by last man on the course, Toni Bou.
Both Fuji and Casales then fived the seventh and final section with Fuji the winner and guaranteed his place in the semi.
The next pairing out were Beta team-mates Jeroni Fajardo and James Dabill, with Dibs obviously the crowd favourite.
And James looked very much on form and keen to give Jeroni a hard time.
In fact the only section where Dibs failed to match Jeroni was the second, the Putoline bottles, where he unfortunately dropped a max and Jeroni made it through for an excellent single.
Surprisingly, both dropped a maximum in the skips before Fajardo progressed to the semi on just seven marks, while Dibs had to wait to see if he would go through as best loser.Jack Challoner was next out, making his Ossa debut.
And after minimal time getting used to the new machine after many years on Beta, he was always going to have a hard time up against Sherco's Albert Cabestany, one of the most consistent riders of recent years.
And it proved to be a real baptism of fire for the local lad, as after fiving the opening three hazards he then rode to a confidence-boosting two-mark loss on the wooden shapes.
It all went horribly wrong, though, with a nasty fall after attempting the opening wall of sleepers without sumping and the resultant crash saw Jack having to retire with an injured hand and wrist.
Cabestany was, of course, automatically through but continued with his round as practice for the semis and the final.
Another factory pairing was next up, with Michael Brown and Adam Raga into the fray for Gas Gas.
Raga looked on top form but Browny, struggling with a lack of Indoor practice, unfortunately clocked-up five maximums for a total of 27, as Raga majestically eased through losing just four marks – and two of those were time faults.
The last pairing out into the arena were Loris Gubian who, like Challoner, was making his Ossa debut and the Frenchman had some sympathy as he was up against the best rider in the world – arguably the best rider of all time – Toni Bou.
Gubian rode well, and looked like he will perform well on the Ossa in the months to come, but against Bou he was always a lamb to the slaughter.
The Repsol Montesa-mounted World Champion cruised imperiously to a completely clean lap and at times appeared to be playing against the clock, easing out of the sections with seconds to spare.
It was a masterly display of skill and an ominous result for his rivals.
So, it was then into the semis with six riders, again split into pairs, sorted out by the riders' scores from Qualifying.
Dibs qualified by being the ‘best loser' but actually posted the fourth best score in Qualification – and again came up against his Beta team mate Fajardo!
The semi was much more sudden death with just four sections following the dual lane race, loser of the race tackling the sections first – and crucially to be used in the event of a tie-break.
Sections in use were the wooden shapes, Red Bull, Putoline bottles and trees and rocks.
The stunner was the Red Bull ridden in the opposite direction, with the problem being a vertical metal step-up with no run-up.
Dibs, Jeroni, Raga and Cabestany all foundered here, before Bou showed why he is the best in the world with a masterly piece of technique, which brought a huge roar from the crowd as he urged the four-stroke Mont up the step and on to the Ends cards.
Bou was through to the final, still on zero marks for the evening.
Dibs missed the final as he dropped one mark in the opening section which, coupled with his five on the Red Bull, totalled six. The next four riders all tied on five marks and had to be separated on tie-break.
Raga lost to Cabestany in the race so he was out, while Fuji – who actually beat Bou in the race by the narrowest of margins – also took a popular place in the last four.
The four finalists then started from scratch again (previously scores from the semi were held over) starting with dual-lane run-offs to determine starting order which was eventually Fajardo, Fujinami, Cabestany and Bou.
The four sections involved were the ingots, the trees, skips and finally sleepers, all run in the opposite direction to previously.
As ever Martin Lampkin had judged his sections pretty much to perfection, proving well worthy of the final.
Bou dropped his first mark by sumping on the toughest ingot in the opening hazard and vented his displeasure at the end of his run of cleans.
This gave him a one-mark edge over his rivals, who all clocked-up two-mark penalities.
The logs and trees also proved difficult, with Jeroni and Fujigas both failing before Cabestany eased through for a two and one time penalty.
Bou edged further ahead with two, without the time faults.
The skips then took Fajardo for a five as he fell back off the toughest climb, while Fuji took a one plus a time fault.
Cabestany, though, was riding beautifully and he cleaned to put the pressure on Bou – who responded with another awesome fault free ride.
Which brought us to the final hazard, the sleepers in the opposite direction and after Fajardo signed-off with a clean and Fuji maxed the crowd waited with baited breath for the two leading contenders. Once again Cabestany fired the Sherco over in perfect style to keep the pressure on Bou.
Albert's total was five and Toni was on three so any slip would be crucial – and Toni's relief was clear for all to see as he celebrated after firing the Montesa over the final massive step-up to the Ends cards.
