Bou ties up number eight
By TMX Archives on 20th Mar 14
TONI Bou secured his eighth-consecutive FIM X-Trial World Championship at the fourth and penultimate round of the 2014 series in Milan, Italy, on Saturday.
The Repsol Montesa pilot dominated as only he can and didn't lose a single mark through Qualification and the semi final.
And it looked like he would go right through the card absolutely clean as a whistle until he collected a time fault for exceeding the one-minute allowance in the penultimate section, which comprised massive tyres.
Bou took the only clean on the hazard as his three rivals in the final all collected five-mark penalties.
Britain's James Dabill once again made it through the Qualis and the Semis to battle it out with the usual three Catalans, Bou Raga and Cabestany, in the four-man final.
But four maximums consigned James to fourth place, for the third X-Trial in a row!
The event began, as always, with Qualification and the Italians had made up the full 10-man line-up with the inclusion of home riders Matteo Grattarola (Gas Gas) and Matteo Poli.
Ossa pilot Poli was totally out of his depth and went down easily in the head-to-head Qualis to Cabestany 25 points to six.
Through the six sections Bou defeated young Spaniard Jorge Casales 19 to 0 and Raga beat Fujinami 18 to 2.
Jeroni Fajardo pipped Grattarola 16 to 18 but, to the delight of the Italian crowd, Grattarola went through to the semis on a tie-break as three riders, Dabill, Grattarola and Fujinami ended Qualifying on 18 marks lost.
All three had fived the last section, which was the first tie-break, and they had to be separated on time through the hazard.
Dibs and Grattarola were quickest and a disappointed Fuji lost out.
WORLD X-TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 4 – Mediolanum Forum, Milan, ITALY
FINAL (4 sects + Lane Races): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 1 mark, 2 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 13, 3 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 16, 4 James DABILL (GB - Beta) 20.
SEMI-FINAL (4 sects + Lane Races): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) clean, 2 Adam Raga (E - Sherco) 7, 3 Albert Cabestany (E - Gas Gas) 10, 4 James DABILL (GB - Beta) 11.
ELIMINATED: 5 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 15, 6 Matteo Grattarola (I - Gas Gas) 16.
QUALIFICATION (6 sects): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) clean, 2 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 2, 3 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 6, 4 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 6, 5 Matteo Grattarola (I - Gas Gas) 18, 6 James DABILL (GB - Beta) 18.
ELIMINATED: 7 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 18, 8 Jorge Casales (E - Gas Gas) 19. 9 Loris Gubian (F - Ossa) 19. 10 Matteo Poli (I - Ossa) 25.
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Toni Bou 80 points (CHAMPION), 2 Cabestany 54, 3 Raga 48, 4 DABILL 32, 5 Fajardo 30, 6 Fujinami 23, 7 Casales 13, 8 Gubian 12, 9 Grattarola 5, 10 Coquelin 3, 11 Michael BROWN 2, 12 Poli 1, 13 Ferrer 1, 14 Jack CHALLONER 1.
FINAL ROUND: March 28 – Palacio de los Deportes, Oviedo, SPAIN.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS MARCH 21
