It’s Viva Espana for TrialGP opener
By John Dickinson on 17th May 18
The eight-round FIM Trial World Championship kicks-off this weekend, as it did last year, at the superb Camprodon venue in Spain, nestling in the foothills of the Pyrenees near the French border.
This will be the second year of the series being run by private promoter Sport7, who revitalised the World Championship last year with a new format where the biggest change was a Qualifying session on the opening day.
In a nutshell, Qualifying takes place over a single section, against the clock, with the fastest time assuming a clean ride on observation going last in the trial on Sunday.
For 2018 there will be TWO Qualifying sessions, with the first deciding the starting order of the second and the second deciding starting order for the trial on
Sunday.
While in 2017 the Trial2 class was granted full World Championship status and won by Welsh ace Iwan Roberts who has elected to move up to TrialGP he didnt have to, he could have defended his title 2018 will see Trial125 also included as a full World Championship class.
TrialGP sees 15 entrants for the start of the series headed of course by reigning and 11-times (consecutive) Champion Toni Bou on the mighty factory Repsol Montesa.
Toni faces opposition from all the usual suspects like his veteran Repsol Honda team-mate Takahisa Fujinami, World No.2 Adam Raga (TRS), and Albert Cabestany now on Beta while maybe the biggest challenge will come from young gun Jaime Busto who made the surprise switch from Repsol Montesa four-stroke to Gas Gas two-stroke in the close season.
Billy Green TrialGP
Great Britain will be represented by James Dabill (Beta), Jack Price (Gas Gas) and Iwan Roberts (TRS). All three contested the Scottish Six Days last week and will transfer straight to Spain for some last-minute TWC practise. Dabill has been on awesome form in the British Champs and also in Scotland and will be looking for some good results as he seems right at home on the Beta.
Pricey will be expecting to break into the Top 10 this year as he is settled on Gas Gas while Iwan has experienced a troubled start to 2018 with a debilitating illness that is hopefully now behind him.
Iwan enjoyed a good week at The Scottish including an encouraging Best on Day award but 2018 will be a difficult one for the Trial2 World Champ as he comes to terms with the awesome TrialGP sections for the first time.Trial2 sees no fewer than 28 entries for Spain and it will be a tough class to even score points in.
Britain has Dan and Jack Peace, who remain on Gas Gas and Toby Martyn who has switched to four-stroke Montesa power in with a real chance of glory and are joined by Hugo Jervis, Oliver Smith and Ulsters Josh Hanlon. The big interest in Trial2 though is that Italian Matteo Grattarola and Frenchman Loris Gubian have dropped down from TrialGP into Trial2 and must surely be joint favourites for the title.
With Trial125 now boasting full World Championship status heres hoping that Britains Billy Green can step up from his No.2 ranking last year to the top spot in 2018.The Beta rider will be a year older and stronger but who knows who might appear on the scene in the teenage dominated class. Billy will be joined by Jake and Andrew Eley and Scot Ben Dignan in an 18-strong class.
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