Increased intensity for TrialGP
By Team TMX on 28th Mar 25
The FIM has pulled off the impossible – a comprehensive TrialGP series rev-up that doesn’t mention Toni Bou. Read it right here…
The 2025 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship gets under way next weekend (April 4-6) with the TrialGP of Spain at Benahavis where competitors and fans will get their first taste of an exciting and fresh new format designed to accelerate the pace of the event and increase intensity levels.
With this in mind, the time limit in each section has been reduced from 90 seconds to 60 seconds and championship points will be awarded twice a day at the end of each ‘lap’, that will now be referred to as ‘race’ in keeping with the new event regulations. These changes are intended to dial up the intensity of the event and at the same time provide increased opportunity for more riders to score points.
Affecting only the premier TrialGP and TrialGP Women classes, a new ‘Power Section’ will be introduced to close each day of competition with additional championship points up for grabs while competitors in both elite categories will, at selected rounds, face a ‘Super Test Section’ to determine starting order.
The off-season has resulted in a number of changes regarding riders, machinery and classes with rising British star Jack Peace (Sherco), last year’s Trial2 champion, graduating to the blue ribbon TrialGP class where he will be joined by Spain’s Alex Canales (Montesa) who was fourth in Trial2 in 2024.
The retirement of Emma Bristow – who won 10 titles in 11 years – at the end of 2024 has heralded a new era in TrialGP Women. This could pave the way for Spain’s Berta Abellan (Scorpa) to claim her first title at this level after finishing second to Bristow on five separate occasions, although she will face stiff opposition from riders including Italy’s Andrea Sofia Rabino (Beta) and Naomi Monnier (Beta) from France.
Bristow is, however, expected to maintain a profile at world championship events as an Assistant to one of the new Trial2 Women competitors. In a class that is intended to develop young female talent, the 34-year-old British legend will be ideally positioned to help nurture riders with ambitions to one day replicate her extraordinary achievements and with an increased entry in the class from British riders it looks as though her past heroics are continuing to inspire her compatriots.
Last year saw two different day winners in the fiercely-contested Trial2 class on electric motorcycles and the bar for battery-powered bikes has been raised even higher this time around with Miquel Gelabert, who was seventh in TrialGP last season, moving to Trial2 where he will give Honda’s new RTL Electric its FIM Trial World Championship debut.
The 27-year-old from Barcelona is not the only rider changing classes and power delivery systems and French rider Benoit Bincaz, who was ninth in TrialGP last year, will drop down to Trial2 as he lines up for Electric Motion in 2025.
With back-to-back Trial3 champion George Hemingway (Beta) also moving to Trial2, the way is clear for a new champion in the class for the series’ youngest riders that boasts 25 rising stars from 10 different nationalities.
Round one of the 2025 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship – the TrialGP of Spain – takes place at Benahavis, around 20 kilometres north-west of Marbella, on April 4-6.
