TrialGP series sets sail to Portugal for Round Two
By Team TMX on 9th Apr 25
With the opening round now consigned to the record books, round two of the 2025 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship – the TrialGP of Portugal – takes place this coming weekend (April 11-13) at Viana do Castelo on the Atlantic coast, close to the border with Spain.
As was the case with last weekend’s opening round at Benahavis in Spain, the chosen venue of Viana do Castelo is new to the Hertz FIM Trial World Championship and competitors can expect to be challenged by perilously steep climbs and descents with huge, natural rock formations stretching their skills to the limit.
For the second consecutive event, all five classes – TrialGP, TrialGP Women, Trial2, Trial2 Women and Trial3 – will be in action and the against-the-clock, points-scoring ‘Power Section’ will again feature at the close of Saturday’s competition for the elite TrialGP and TrialGP Women riders.
Attempting to win an incredible 19th consecutive TrialGP title, Toni Bou (Montesa) emerged from his home round in the lead after dominating on the opening day before his compatriot Jaime Busto (GASGAS) found his form on the Sunday.
With a new format that has seen each day’s two laps rebranded as separate races with championship points up for grabs in both, Bou’s three wins and a second put him in pole with a 10-point lead after Busto – who was restricted to two third-placed finishes on the Saturday behind Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) – took the overall win on Sunday with a second and a victory.
Last season’s vice-champion, Marcelli came close to beating his team-mate in Race Two on Saturday, but the following day he slipped to fourth in the opening race behind fellow Spaniard Aniol Gelabert (TRRS) before recovering to third in Race Two to end the weekend five points behind Busto.
Finishing the opening day with four-four race results, Matteo Grattarola (Beta) currently sits fourth in the points, 12 adrift of Marcelli and three ahead of Gelabert whose three-six finishes on Sunday just gave him the edge over the veteran Italian’s five-four scores on the final day.
Widely regarded as the pre-season favourite in TrialGP Women, Spain’s Berta Abellan (Scorpa) slipped to a surprise fifth in Race One on Saturday before fighting back, winning the day’s final race and then sweeping both races on Sunday to open up a four-point advantage heading into the TrialGP of Portugal.
After winning the opening race and finishing second in Race Two, Italy’s Andrea Sofia Rabino (Beta) held the overnight lead before two-four results the following day dropped her to second, but she leads third-placed Denisa Pecháková (TRRS) – who ran three-four on Saturday followed by five-two on Sunday – by 11 points.
Currently nine points behind the Czech rider, Alice Minta (Beta) from Britain – whose weekend highlight was a fighting third in Race Two on Sunday – sits fourth, three ahead of her compatriot Kaytlyn Adshead (Sherco) who struggled to replicate the form that carried her to second in Race One on the opening day.
With reigning Trial2 champion Jack Peace (Sherco) moving up to TrialGP this season, 2023 champion Billy Green (Scorpa) took full advantage to remain unbeaten on the first day in Spain before running three-four the following day to take a healthy 13-point lead into Viana do Castelo.
Green’s main challenge in Portugal could come from his compatriot Harry Hemingway (Beta) who started his title campaign with a disappointing eighth in Saturday’s first race, but recovered to second in Race Two before scoring four-two finishes the next day to secure second in the series. However, the 19-year-old is tied with French rider Benoit Bincaz (Electric Motion) – who this year has dropped down from TrialGP – whose four-three and one-nine finishes over the opening weekend provide an insight into just how close and competitive this class is.
In his debut season in the class after winning back-to-back Trial3 titles, 17-year-old George Hemingway – Harry’s younger brother – shocked the field on Sunday in Spain by posting the best two combined race finishes as he climbed from eighth in the points on the opening day to fourth, just five points behind his older sibling.
So stacked with talent is Trial2, it is impossible to pick a favourite this coming weekend and we can expect strong performances from riders including 2022 champion Sondre Haga (GASGAS), Spain’s Arnau Farré (Sherco) and Miquel Gelabert (Honda) on the new RTL Electric as well as Czech rider David Fabian (Beta) who signed off on his inconsistent weekend with victory in Race Two on Sunday.
The highest-placed competitor from 2024 in Trial2 Women, Italy’s Sara Trentini (TRRS) stuck to the form book and backed up one-three race results on the opening day with one-two finishes on the Sunday to open up a 10-point gap over French rider Margaux Pena (Electric Motion).
Britain’s Matilda Arbon (Sherco), whose combined three-one race finishes gave her the overall win on Saturday after winning a tie-break with Trentini, sits third a further 11 points off the pace after running nine-seven on the concluding day.
The sport’s brightest up-and-coming talents can be found in Trial3 where Norwegian teenager Jonas Jorgensen (Beta) leads by 14 points after posting incredibly consistent one-two and then two-one race finishes, but he was defeated in Race Two on Saturday by American series newcomer Ryon Land (Sherco) and in Race One on Sunday by Japan’s Jin Kuroyama (Sherco).
With strong challenges also expected from riders including the British pairing of Harison Skelton (Scorpa) and Euan Sim (Sherco) and Italian Fabio Mazzola (TRRS), it will be fascinating to watch the action in this class unfold.
The points-scoring action from Viana do Castelo is scheduled to get under way at 09:00 local time on Saturday.
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