Report: World X-Trial Championship – Rd 1, Sheffield
By Team TMX on 13th Jan 16
Raga against the machine - Awesome Adam cuts down Bou in Steel City
ADAM Raga was the toast of Sheffield on Saturday night after pulling off a superb and fully deserved win in the opening round of the 2016 X-Trial Championship.
Raga gave Jordi Tarres' prototype TRS an amazing maiden X-Trial victory and in doing so became the first person to defeat Toni Bou at Sheffield – ever.
Adam won the event in 2005 but the win machine that is Bou has been victorious on 10 consecutive occasions since. It was a massive result for Raga – and he knew it!
From the off it had been a relatively quiet night at Sheffield as although Bou had taken a five in Qualifying, allowing Raga to qualify first, it was expected that this was an isolated blip that would ensure the nine times X-Trial champ made no further errors.
The evening had basically followed the expected script and the impressive crowd, estimated at around 6,000, were almost witnessing a pre-recorded demonstration with all competitors filling their respective roles and the four Spanish qualifiers were all duly in the final.
Then in the final the impossible happened and Bou, riding last, slipped off the second section and found himself in last place behind Cabestany on two and Raga and Fajardo who were both still boasting clean sheets...and suddenly the arena came alive, suddenly an upset was genuinely on the cards... "Come on Adam!” went the cries!
But that's getting ahead of the game...
After the usual Sheffield introductions the eight competitors – seven contracted riders plus one wildcard, Britain's James Dabill – it was on with the action. It was a simple format, no gimmicks, no semi finals or last chance saloon, the eight riders in Qualifying were reduced to just four in the final via their performance in six testing sections.
The head-to-head races would be run purely to decide starting order.
Out first were the pairing of Eddie Karlsson and James Dabill and Dibs pipped Eddie in the race and naturally opted to send the young Swede into the sections first.
The opening hazard was true to Sheffield being made from huge steel ingot moulds to be ridden across with inch-perfect technique required.
Eddie failed but Dibs looked sharp and had the crowd on its feet with a confident clean.
Unfortunately, both pioneers then failed the next two sections which were the Inch Perfect sponsored boxes and the Putoline bottles.
Eddie's score continued to rise with another stop on the impressive looking yellow skips while James took his time and cleaned the section but at the expense of a time fault.
Both then stopped in the penultimate Red Bull sleepers and shapes and also came to a halt in the final rocks and tree stump hazard.
Eddie unfortunately clocked-up a maximum while James limited his losses to 21 after some promising rides went wrong.
Next out were a returning Takahisa Fujinami and tall Frenchman Alexandre Ferrer.
Fuji, the popular Barcelona based Japanese star, received a warm welcome from the crowd after missing last season's X-Trial as he recovered from a knee operation.
Sherco-mounted Ferrer rides in a similar fashion to Sherco team leader Albert Cabestany with a solid technique but not a lot of flair.
Fuji is the complete opposite and while having plenty of technique he still relies on lightning reflexes as he typically rushes sections.
To be fair the veteran Repsol Montesa rider, now in his 21st adult season, looked fit and sharp and was perhaps unlucky to drop 14 marks although it did see him fifth at the end of the night, easily the best and most impressive of the non-qualifiers.
Qualifying actually proved to be an event of two halves as the level went up several gears when the top four entered the arena although to be fair they had the advantage of seeing how the sections were riding, especially the tricky bits where their rivals had failed.
Enter Albert Cabestany, veteran Sherco talisman and Jeroni Fajardo, out for the first time on the Vertigo and despite feeling the pressure, eager to make an impression.
The final pair were of course the arch-rivals Toni Bou and Adam Raga with Adam looking to once again take the fight to Bou, armed this year with the production prototype TRS.
To be honest there was little between all four Catalan riders in Qualifying with both Jeroni and Adam cleaning the first four sections including the difficult, seemingly gripless, climb up the angled boxes.
Cabs escaped with a two here but Bou misjudged it and his maximum brought a gasp from the fans.
With one mark being awarded for any ‘sumping' or deliberately using the bashplate it lifted the skill level yet again this year and of course added to the chance of a mistake due to possible over-shooting of sections and the Sheffield hazards brilliantly took this into account with no ridiculously high steps where sumping would be necessary.
Given the sections the marks were ridiculously low with the rampant Raga out front and looking confident on just a single on the skips with tie-breaks having to sort-out Bou, Cabs and Jeroni.
The final began with the head to head races to decide starting order and Bou reigned supreme in the speed test and the order was Cabs, Fajardo, Raga and Bou.
The sections were run in the same order but ridden in reverse direction and just as planned by course supremos Dougie and Harry Lampkin they rode harder but were all still possible.
All four cleaned the opening ingots which got any final nerves out of the way and then Cabestany needed two on the boxes before Fajardo cleaned.
This gave Raga the confidence to go for it, which he did and then came the moment which blew the tournament wide open, Bou failed the boxes and was suddenly in fourth place on five marks while Adam and Jeroni were clean – with just four sections remaining!
With a real buzz in the arena it was on to the third section – the oil bottles – and after Cabs eased across for a safe single Jeroni blew his chance of a debut Vertigo victory when he slid backwards for a maximum.
Raga kept everyone waiting for a short while as he had a rear puncture rectified by the TRF crew but it didn't affect his concentration as he cleaned in style, as did Bou as he looked to limit the damage.
Adam was now out in front and it was now his trial to lose – if he could keep his total to less than five through the remaining three sections there was nothing Toni could do about it.
The Red Bull shapes and sleeper mountain was next and Cabs good run came to a halt here with a maximum but then Fajardo showed it was possible to do it for a one and Raga took good note and although his one was the first mark he dropped in the final it was totally safe.
Cabestany then cleaned the penultimate section – the skips – and Jeroni followed with a big crash, coming down backwards.
This didn't spook Raga though and he settled for another safe single and Bou followed-up with the same to take the pressure to the final section. And the trees and rocks proved to be absolutely perfect for the job.
Cabs and Fajardo both gave it their best but both ended with a maximum and the pressure was now all on Adam.
But he rode the very difficult and technical hazard absolutely perfect and he even took his time, preferring to take a single penalty for exceeding the limit rather than rushing and risking a five.
It was a ride that fully justified the win and Raga was totally pumped as he accepted the applause and cheers from an excited arena.
To Bou's credit he followed-up with a similar copybook ride to assure himself of second place before it was a quick trip to the podium for the celebrations.
Toni was a total gent but he was a far from happy man.
He told exactly the same story at each interview, a terse "I make one mistake and it is not possible to make the five marks back. Now we concentrate on the next round in Barcelona.”
For Raga it was pure joy laughing, "I don't remember when I last won here, many years ago, I was very young!” When reminded that it was actually 2005 – and that he went on to take the championship that year, he responded "thank you, I will be trying very hard to do it again. This was a perfect night for me, I was riding well, I am confident and the bike was perfect. This win means a lot to me.”
