Trials Torque: Lourdes ready for Trial World Championship
By John Dickinson on 21st Jun 17
FOLLOWING straight after the third round in Andorra comes round four of the 2017 FIM Trial World Championship in Lourdes, France.
The French round has seen scores of venues over the years so Lourdes is clearly something special to be used twice in a row.
The parc ferme in town is excellent and with the sections just a short walk up the hillside it is an almost perfect venue.
And being just a short drive from Andorra the teams and riders get an easy week.
In TrialGP battle resumes and after his victory last Sunday Adam Raga will be keen to get straight back into action, the TRS star eager to cut further into Toni Bou's Championship lead which he chopped back to just 10 points.
In turn Bou will be smarting from his first defeat of the year, even more as he was also beaten by his young Repsol Honda team mate Jaime Busto.
Britain's James Dabill and Jack Price suffered in Andorra and will be looking for much better results in Lourdes.
Dibsta will want to re-assert himself as top Gas Gas pilot and Pricey will be targetting a top 10 finish as he achieved in Japan.
Trial2 has been totally unpredictable but the fact is that Britain's Iwan Roberts leads the series after three rounds but the Beta rider's nearest challenger, Gas Gas mounted Gael Chatagno will be riding in his home round and Iwan will need to be right on top og his game.
Dan and Jack Peace and Toby Martyn are all capable of climbing the podium but just haven't had the consistency so far to mount a Championship challenge.
In Trial125 Britain's Billy Green resumes his title battle with Italian Lorenzo Gandola in a Beta v Scorpa shootout.
Gandola just has the edge at the moment but Billy has shown he can beat him and this one could end in a battle of nerves.
Josh Hanlon, Brett Harbud, Oliver Smith and Jake Eley join Billy in the hunt for points.
