Mister Bou Jangles!
By TMX Archives on 20th Jan 12
Very much as expected, defending champion Toni Bou (Repsol Montesa) romped to a relatively easy win at the opening round of the 2012 FIM X-Trial World Championship held in Strasbourg, France, on Friday evening. With the reigning champion well clear of the chasing pack, it was left to Adam Raga (Gas Gas), Albert Cabestany (Sherco) and Takahisa Fujinami (Repsol Montesa) to scrap it out for the two remaining podium places.
The two Spanish compatriots eventually succeeded in claiming second and third respectively. Meanwhile, the popular Japanese rider, ‘Fujigas' was pushed off the rostrum due to losing out on a tie-break with Cabestany, which was decided on their respective finishes in the Qualification stage.
Qualification got the action under way with the eight permanent riders facing five sections that would ultimately determine if they made it through to the Main Trial itself.
Britain's Michael Brown (Gas Gas) had the unenviable task of being the first man through the hazards and acquitted himself well with a total of 16 penalties. This set the early benchmark as Alfredo Gomez (Montesa) failed to impress on his full season debut, dropping a hefty score of 23 marks.
Loris Gubian (Gas Gas) and Takahisa Fujinami (Repsol Montesa) then raised the bar with scores of 11 marks apiece, with the home rider winning the eventual tie-break for starting order. A five on the big step in the very last section put Albert Cabestany (Sherco) on six while Jeroni Fajardo (Beta) was right on the leading pace with his single mark loss coming into the same hazard.
Bou and Raga matched each other blow for blow as they both stayed clean throughout all five hazards, but it was the defending champion Bou who stole the initial advantage by crushing his compatriot in the tie-decider.
Raga maintained his pressure on Bou through the opening two sections of the semi-final, despite Toni beating him in the first dual lane encounter. Only these two front-runners managed to clean the large concrete cubes as the other four qualifiers failed at the initial step.
However in the very next hazard Bou was to assert his superiority by delivering an emphatic clean on the wooden pallets, while Raga was next best with a scrappy three plus one on time. Gubian and Fajardo were the two riders who failed to transfer to the final as they both fived the last scaffold hazard.
With Bou already well out in front, his only blot came when he was defeated by his Montesa team-mate Fujinami in a dual lane race. Bou then used each section in the final to stamp his authority on the event.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX JANUARY 20
WORLD X-TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 1 – Strasbourg, FRANCE
FINAL (4 sects + Semi + Lane Races): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 1 + 0 + 1 = 2 marks, 2 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 8 + 10 + 3 = 21, 3 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 11 + 10 + 1 = 22, 4 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 11 + 10 + 1 = 22.
SEMI-FINAL (4 sects + Lane Race): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) clean, 2 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 10, 3 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 10, 4 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 10.
ELIMINATED: 5 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 16, 6 Loris Gubian (F - Gas Gas) 16.
QUALIFICATION (5 sects): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) clean, 2 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) clean, 3 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 1, 4 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 6, 5 Loris Gubian (F - Gas Gas) 11, 6 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 11.
ELIMINATED: 7 Michael BROWN (GB - Gas Gas) 16, 8 Alfredo Gomez (E - Montesa) 23.
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Toni Bou 20 points, 2 Adam Raga 15, 3 Albert Cabestany 12, 4 Takahisa Fujinami 9, 5 Jeronie Fajardo 6, 6 Loris Gubian 5, 7 Michael BROWN 3, 8 Alfredo Gomez 2.
NEXT ROUND: January 21 – Geneva Arena, Geneva, SWITZERLAND.
