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Laia Sanz takes her seventh World Championship title

Montfort (France) next Friday. With this new sports success, the Repsol-Montesa HRC rider has manager to equal the results of Jordi Tarrés y Dougie Lampkin, the two legends of this motorcycling speciality.

 

The multiple-champion has not been able to celebrate her victory until the end of the last section of the trial, staged on an easy terrain where any mistake could be very expensive, due to a fiasco in the first passage that forced her to make a perfect second passage, which Sanz performed without a single penalty.

 

Laia Sanz:
I have been forced to do my very best in the second passage to try to win and get the title in the first chance. Maybe its been the tension I have felt but the truth is that with one of the aims achieved I feel like in heaven, both for myself and for the Repsol-Montesa HRC team. Seven world titles…

 

Yes, thats the same number of titles clinched by Jordi Tarrés and later by Dougie Lampkin, although it has a different kind of value for me because it hard for me to compare. I would even dare to say that I would change my seven titles for one of theirs.

 

Trial of Belgica:

  1. Laia Sanz (Montesa) 5 (5+0)
  2. Becky Cook (Gas Gas) 5 (4+1)
  3. Iris Krämer (Gas Gas) 8 (3+5)
  4. Claire Bretrand (Gas Gas) 11 (4+7)
  5. Rosita Leotta (Gas Gas) 11 (7+4)

    9. Carla Calderer (Montesa) 20 (9+11)

Campeonato del Mundo:

  1. Laia Sanz (Montesa) 40 points
  2. Becky Cook (Gas Gas) 32
  3. Iris Krämer (Gas Gas) 32
  4. Claire Bretrand (Gas Gas) 26
  5. Rosita Leotta (Gas Gas) 20

Born on 11 December 1985 in Corbera de Llobregat (Barcelona), her hometown, Laia Sanz was only four years old when she got for the first time on a motorbike. She had her debut in competition in 1992 and clinched her first victory in 1997. The highlights of her sports career are the seven world championship titles achieved in a row since 2000 but she has also achieved five consecutive continental titles, including the one achieved only last Sunday. This is Laia Sanzs third season in the Repsol-Montesa HRC team, having as team mates British rider Dougie Lampkin and Takahisa Fujinami from Japan.

 

Profile and career highlights

Date of birth: 11.12.1985

Place of birth: Corbera de Llobregat (Barcelona)

Height: 1.78 m.

Weight: 73 Kg.

First competition: Trial of Spain 2000 (women)

First podium finish: Trial of Spain 2000

First victory: Trial of Spain 2000

Total victories: 8 (in the womens world championship).

World titles: 7 (womens)

Years as Repsol rider: 4

Hobbies: Music, ski and fronton.

career highlights


1999

3rd Spanish and Catalan Junior Trial Championship

2000

Womens World Trial Champion (FIM Cup)
Runner-up Womens European Trial Championship
Womens Spanish Junior Trial Champion
Team victory Womens Trial des Nations

2001

Womens World Trial Champion (FIM Cup)
Runner-up Womens European Trial Championship
Runner-up Team Womens Trial des Nations

2002

Womens World Trial Champion (FIM Cup)
Womens European Trial Champion
Team victory Womens Trial des Nations
3rd Spanish Junior Trial Championship

2003

Womens World Trial Champion
Womens European Trial Champion winning all the staged rounds
5th Spanish Senior B Championship (only female participant)
11th Junior World Trial Championship (without having participated in the four first rounds and being the only female participant)
Winner Senior Class Dos Días de Crianza de Trial (only female participant)

2004

Womens World Trial Champion
Womens European Trial Champion
5th Junior World Trial Championship

2005

Womens World Trial Champion
Womens European Trial Champion
4th Junior World Trial Championship.

2006

Womens World Trial Champion
Womens European Trial Champion

 

Biography

Laia has been riding bikes for seventeen years now and her large record is good proof of it. She had her first contact with the two-wheel machines at the young age of four riding around her hometown Corbera de Llobregat (Barcelona). From that moment on she decided to invest all her energy in a sport that is almost monopolised by men, and took her first victory at the age of twelve, thus calling the attention of the fans and experts right away.

 

She competed for the first time in 1992 and her first victory arrived in 1997. Laias progression since then has been constant, achieving seven Womens World Trial Championships in a row, from 2000 to 2006, the last five of them complemented by the European title in the same class. She made her debut in Montesa-HRC in the 2004 season. Laia has achieved everything that can be achieved in the womens class and her aims are already set on getting good results in the absolute classes, thanks to the constant support she is receiving from her team-mates Lampkin and Fujinami.

 

Laia, has also learned a lot from all of them. Continuous effort, hard work, and a refined technique allowed her to face the 2006 season with the highest ambitions and achieve all his sporting aim. She is always ready to keep on breaking records in the womens class but also to make it harder for male competitors. Between race and race, during the little spare time she has between competitions, Laia enjoys music and sports.

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