Bou-rilliant show
By TMX Archives on 16th Mar 12
TONI Bous relentless march to the 2012 World X-Trial Championship continued in Palma, Majorca, when the Repsol Montesa ace extended his unbeaten run in the current series to five wins from five starts.
But the reigning Outdoor and Indoor king was forced to ride at his best throughout the entire event as the ever-consistent Sherco number one Albert Cabestany was on a mission to overtake his arch-rival, Gas Gas pilot Adam Raga, in the Championship standings and that is exactly what he did.
In a low scoring trial Cabestany was in the frame to actually win the event right up to the last section but Bou maintained his cool to keep on his winning roll.
A total of eight riders were entered in the event on the well-known holiday island and they all lined-up for the Qualification round which is five sections to be completed within eight minutes.
Not normally a problem. What was a problem that was six of the eight all completed the task on zero points which brought about a six way tie-break.
Unfortunately, Michael Brown was not in this elite group as Browny and Alfredo Gomez had been eliminated.
Michael fived the first and third sections plus one in the fourth to notch up 11 points and Gomez took a maximum on the first three before cleaning the last two, as the Gas Gas and Montesa challengers finished in that order.
As they were heading for the exit the remaining six lined up at the log section to ride the hazard against the clock.
Frenchman Loris Gubian and Takahisa Fujinami both failed at their first attempt and had to have another run-off which Fuji took, relegating Gubian to last qualifier, with Fuji next.
Fajardo played safe and took the Beta through clean in 22 seconds.
Cabestany was careful to beat this in a time of 20 seconds. and Raga then raised the bar considerably with a clean in 16 seconds – before Bou kicked them all out of the park with a clean, stopping the clock in a fantastic time of 10.2 seconds.
In the semi-final Bou, Cabestany and Fujinami were successful in their dual-lane races against Raga, Fajardo and Gubian respectively.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX MARCH 16
WORLD X-TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 – Palma de Mallorca, SPAIN
FINAL (3 sects + Semi + Lane Races): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 0 + 2 + 0 = 2 marks, 2 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 1 + 2 + 1 = 4, 3 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 5 + 3 + 2 = 10, 4 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 2 + 6 + 3 = 11.
SEMI-FINAL (4 sects + Lane Race): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 2, 2 Albert Cabestany (J - Montesa) 2, 3 Takahisa Fujinami (E - Sherco) 3, 4 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 6.
ELIMINATED: 5 Loris Gubian (F - Gas Gas) 12, 6 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 16.
QUALIFICATION (5 sects): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 0 (T: 10.2), 2 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 0 (15.0), 3 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 0 (20.0), 4 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 0 (22.0), 5 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 5 (20.3), 6 Loris Gubian (F - Gas Gas) 5 (22.2).
ELIMINATED: 7 Michael BROWN (GB - Gas Gas) 11, 8 Alfredo Gomez (E - Montesa) 15.
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Bou 100 points, 2 Cabestany 66, 3 Raga 63, 4 Fujinami 51, 5 Fajardo 27, 6 Gubian 25, 7 BROWN 16, 8 Gomez 8, 9 Tarres 5, 10 CHALLONER 2, 11 Ferrer 1, 12 Dagnicourt 1.
NEXT ROUND: March 17 – Fila Forum, Milan, ITALY.
