Sheffield steel

The Repsol Montesa team leader overcame a strong challenge by Sherco's Albert Cabestany to take maximum points in the opening round of the FIM X-Trial World Championship, staged in the Sheffield Arena on Saturday evening. 

 

But although the two rivals were separated by just a single mark at the end of the four-man final, in reality Toni was in total control and the 20 points were always in his pocket. 

 

Jeroni Fajardo made it an all Catalan podium while wild card James Dabill was top Brit, claiming fourth on the night after 

working hard to get into the final. 

 

The shock of the night though was Gas Gas number one Adam Raga who failed to make it out of Qualifying, a surprise to both the crowd and himself as Adam had actually looked very sharp and confident during pre-race warm-up.

 

It was a busy night in store for the 6,00- strong crowd, with no fewer than 10 riders, including British wild cards Dabill and his pal Michael Brown, lining up for the Qualifying session, which was conducted over five sections. 

 

To ring the changes, each rider in turn tackled a different section, so first rider out, Michael Brown, got the event under way with a single dab ride over the cable drums.

 

Matteo Grattarola was next out, to ride the logs and the Italian was totally out of his depth with a very quick five and it was no surprise that he finished last on the night. There was a big cheer next for James Dabill who faced the Red Bull metal shapes. 

 

He took a confident clean on what turned out to be the easiest section of the night although a five here sealed Jack Challoner's fate.

 

Tall Frenchman Alexandre Ferrer made his debut on the Putoline oil bottles and he worked hard to come out with a very good clean.

 

The boxes may have looked the easiest of the five initial hazards but we found out how hard they were going to ride when first rider on this hazard, Jack Challoner, maxed out here.

 

It was then back to the first hazard for the remaining five riders to take their turns at the round-Robin until each rider had tackled all five sections. 

 

Fajardo got his evening away with a nice clean on the cable drums while crowd pleaser Takahisa Fujinami had a big ‘off' on the logs, a section which began to look impossible.

 

Fujigas drew a big cheer when he tackled the Putoline bottles though and ended with a huge jump to the ends cards.

 

Adam Raga was yet another to take a big hit on the logs and although this wasn't a disaster, given that pretty much everyone else had done the same, his five on the Putoline bottles was always going to see Adam packing his bags early. 

 

He made a big mistake and failed to land square on the circular pipe section and lost the front wheel – and that was that. 

 

These were exactly the sort of errors that Bou avoids.

 

Toni was perfection on the logs.Fived by all before him the hazard looked impossible, but with millimetre perfect precision, a 

slightly different line and awesome control he made the impossible look easy, sacrificing a mark on time in order to maintain a feet-up ride.

 

Full credit to Cabestany though.

 

The 32-year-old from Tarragona was on top form on the factory Sherco and showed he wasn't going to be intimidated with a superb one-dab effort, showing fantastic skill and control .

 

He had the Sherco poised and dancing on the back wheel, although he had a time fault to add to it. It was then back to those pesky boxes which featured some awkward turns and finding grip was the big problem. 

 

Raga, in big trouble thanks to his early fives, made a good go of it but his two observed marks plus one time fault was never going to save him by this stage. 

 

Once again Bou was a class act, with a brilliant single and for once even Cabestany couldn't keep pace with him.

 

So, after around two hours' running time the event lost Grattarola, Jack Challoner, Michael Brown and – big surprise – Adam Raga. 

 

At semi-final time Dibs was the sole Brit left in the competition and it was straight into the double-lane race for the remaining six competitors. 

 

 

Rd 1 – Motorpoint Arena, Broughton Lane, 

Sheffield, BRITAIN

FINAL (4 sects + Semi + Lane Races): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 6 + 0 + 0 = 6 marks, 2 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 5 + 1 + 1 = 7, 3 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 12 + 0 + 6 = 18, 4 James DABILL (GB - Beta) 15 + 1 + 16 = 32.

SEMI-FINAL (4 sects + Lane Race): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) clean, 2 Albert Cabestany (E - Beta) 1, 3 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Sherco) 6, 4 James DABILL (GB - Beta) 16. ELIMINATED: 5 Alexandre Ferrer (F - Sherco) 16, 6 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 17.

QUALIFICATION (5 sects): 1 Toni Bou (E - Montesa) 2 marks lost, 2 Jeroni Fajardo (E - Beta) 9, 3 Albert Cabestany (E - Sherco) 10, 4 James DABILL (GB - Beta) 11, 5 Takahisa Fujinami (J - Montesa) 12, 6 Alexandre Ferrer (F - Sherco) 12. ELIMINATED: 7 Adam Raga (E - Gas Gas) 13, 8 Michael BROWN (GB - Gas Gas) 14, 9 Jack CHALLONER (GB - Beta) 18, 10 Matteo Grattarola (I - Gas Gas) 18.

SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Bou 20 points, 2 Cabestany 15, 3 Fajardo 12, 4 DABILL 9, 5 Ferrer 6, 6 Fujinami 5, 7 Raga 4, 8 BROWN 3, 9 CHALLONER 2, 10 Grattarola 1.

NEXT ROUND: February 10 – Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, SPAIN.