The World Indoor Trial Championship ended up this Sunday in Barcelona with a tie on points in the general standings between Albert Cabestany and Toni Bou. After the first two trials in the 2010 schedule (Sheffield, England and Marseilles, France), the two Spanish riders had shared victories: the man from Repsol Montesa Honda won the first one and his compatriot Cabestany took the second one.
With things being so neck-and-neck at the top of the overall standings, both riders came to Barcelona prepared to fight for the leadership. Yet both of them should not forget Adam Raga, Jeroni Fajardo, James Dabill and Bou’s colleague at Repsol Montesa Honda, the Japanese rider Takahisa Fujinami.
In the classifying session this morning Toni Bou already set the standard for his rivals, winning with authority and free of errors. In his morning run Bou finished going through the five zones without dropping a point and scoring the only clear round. After the Repsol rider Cabestany finished, notching a 5 in the third zone. Takahisa Fujinami was third, having racked up two points in zone two , two more in zone three and a five in the fourth.
These three riders, together with Fajardo, went straight through to the semi-finals, where Toni Bou was again a cut above. The man from Piera put together another clear round over the three zones, while the other competitors scored 15 points except James Dabill, who scored 12. In the double lane Toni Bou surrendered victory to Fajardo, while Fujinami won in his tussle with Gubian.
And in the grand finale between Toni Bou, Takahisa Fujinami, Albert Cabestany and James Dabill, Bou continued to keep up his impeccable pace. The man from Repsol Montesa Honda again obtained three consecutive clear runs, while his rivals went on amassing points. In the fourth and last zone of the Barcelona trial featuring trunks, Bou got a 5 after a fault coming into the zone. With everything already decided the fault was a merely academic detail as the Repsol rider closed off an impeccable performance. This new victory and Albert Cabestany final second place allow Toni Bou to regain his leading position in the overall standings with a five point lead over his fellow countryman.
Takahisa Fujinami, the protagonist in a fierce struggle for third on the podium with James Dabill finally had to settle for fourth after suffering some technical problems with the rear brake of his bike which stopped him putting up a fight with the Briton for third place in the end. With his fourth place today the Japanese rider from Repsol Montesa Honda has managed to hold his sixth place in the overall standings.
The fourth and penultimate trial where the scoring counts towards the World Indoor Trial Championship will be held on 13 March in Madrid.
Toni Bou
“I’m really happy because I dreamed about a race like this where everything went well for me. I reckon I had a great race today because there was a lot of pressure on me as things were so tight in the World Championship and due to the fact that I was racing at home, which is always hard. My riding was incredible thanks to the fact that the bike ran really well and the work the team put in over the whole week has been perfect, which meant I had a bike that was well prepared for these kinds of zones. Without things being well tuned up in Barcelona you can’t win and this result is the best way to thank them for their hard work. In the end the dust in the zones was really noticeable which made it really hard to get a good start and made the going really tough.”
Takahisa Fujinami
“It was a race that was quite a lot different from Toni Bou’s because we had a lot of terraces and high passes where only he is capable of coping. Personally I am happy with my performance although I had some trouble with the rear brake which cost me in the end, especially in zones I really liked. It was a pity because in the classifying leg I went well but in the end, due to this problem, it was much harder. I ended up one point from the podium, which is a shame. I am not very happy but the performance was a lot better than at other times.”
