Trials Torque: Nice work for Brits
By John Dickinson on 30th Mar 16
JAMES Dabill, fresh from his win in the Santigosa Three Day Trial, will lead the two-man Great Britain team into battle in the 2016 X-Trial des Nations this Friday evening in Nice, France.
Britain's No.1 will be joined by Welsh Champion Iwan Roberts as five Nations, GB, Spain, France, Italy and the United States of America battle it out.
Spain have won all nine X-Trial des Nations events held to date, seven staged in Spain, the last two in Nice, and the new rule change introduced this year, where one rider must be under 25 years of age, is not expected to stop their incredible run.
The new rule means that for the first time, Albert Cabestany will not be a member of the team.
Cabes has the amazing record of having contested, and been part of the winning team, in all nine previous contests.
The Spanish team is naturally headed by newly crowned and 10 times World X-Trial Champion Toni Bou and he will be joined by his Repsol Montesa team mate, 18-year-old Jaime Busto.
Busto finished sixth in the 2015 World Championship but hasn't shown any form in the two X-Trials he has contested in 2016, Barcelona and Marseille, so that might just give the other Nations some hope.
At least Busto has had some practice at the very top level indoors, Britain's Iwan Roberts has never contested an X-Trial so it is really in at the deep end for the talented 19-year-old TTT Beta rider.
The home French squad is Alexandre Ferrer and Benoit Bincaz. Ferrer has been poor in the X-Trial and Bincaz, like Roberts, is inexperienced but they will have a partisan crowd on their side to give them a lift.
Italy relies on the experienced Matteo Grattarola joined by Gianluca Tournour while the USA boys who make their country's debut in the competition are both under 25, Bryan Roper the senior member and Andrew Putt, just 17.
Both riders have outdoor experience having contested the Junior World Cup last year and will look to do their country proud.
The new rule, while not removing Spain from their red hot favourite status, has certainly opened up the competition and introduced a new dynamic with the younger riders.
The event will begin with a speed section, to determine start order and then the team manager has to decide which of his riders tackles which section as they must pick three from the six for each rider.
For the second lap, a rider is not allowed to ride the sections he contested on the opening circuit.
Best of luck to James and Iwan on what is sure to be a challenging night for the boys.
