Toni Bou finished second in the French Trial Grand Prix, with the same points as the winner of the race, Adam Raga. His team mate, Takahisa Fujinami, was sixth.
In the antepenultimate round of the 2014 Trial World Championship, held today in France, Toni Bou and his main rival for the championship, Adam Raga, finished the race with the same points. The time used to complete the zones decided the winner, which was Raga, with the Repsol Honda Team rider in second place, as he finished the itinerary in a longer time.
A small mistake in two zones prevented Toni Bou from taking another victory in the Trial World Championship. A too easy race put an end to his winning streak of four consecutive races that put him on the World Championship lead. Two errors in the first and second lap during a low difficulty round were the only mistakes made by the Repsol Honda rider, who in the last lap finished without any penalty. Nevertheless, it took him more time than his rival and that is what decided the winner of the round. His team mate at the Repsol Honda Team, Takahisa Fujinami, had a good start of the race, but was unable to keep the pace in the next two laps. He finished in sixth place and lost a position in the Trial World Championship overall standings. The Japanese is now fifth and will fight in the next two races to recover his place.
The next round for the Repsol Honda Team will be the Spanish Trial Grand Prix, the last double round of the World Championship, which will be held in the town of Arnedo –La Rioja–, next September 6 and 7.
Toni Bou
2nd – 2 points
“I think I didn’t do a bad race, but in such an easy trial I was too afraid of making mistakes that might compromise the Championship. The terrain was amazing and they might have set much more difficult zones, but they wanted to make them easy for everyone. It is a pity to lose by so little, but we need to look at the positive side: we still have an advantage of seven points in the Championship, which is very good. We’ll try to manage that advantage until the last Grand Prix to try and achieve our objective”.
Takahisa Fujinami
6th – 39 points
“The zones were fairly easy and I made some mistakes that made me gather points again and again. I knew I was making mistakes and had no margin to recover. I tried to finished fifth, but in the end I was sixth when I could have been even further back. I will try to recover fully from my knee injury in August and do my best in the last two races”.
