Laia Sanz has been winning since the year 2000 at the Females Trial World Championship, where she has only let victory escape in one occasion. She gathers eleven World Championships, as well as ten European Championship titles, after more than a decade competing at the highest level of the sport.
A dream weekend: European and World Champion…
“Yes, that is true, it went very well and I could not have asked for more. They were two important objectives for this year and I achieved them on the same weekend, so it was perfect”.
You cannot count your World Championships with the fingers of your hands anymore. Had you ever dreamt you could get so many?
“No, not at all. I could never have imagined that. I started in Trial as a hobby and I did not even think it would be my job. But I was able to make a living with it and to win all those World Championships, which is something I would never have imagined”.
Rivals change, some leave the competition and new ones arrive, but none of them is able to catch you. How is the level of the competition?
“I think that it has improved a lot in the last years. The level is higher and it also forced me to improve. At the beginning it was only Iris Krämer and I, both very far away from the rest. Now I think there are four or five riders with a very good level. It has improved and there are more girls riding, which is very good for the competition”.
You finish most of the rounds with a zero, do you think the zones should be more difficult?
“It is true that you usually suffer a bit because there are very few difficult zones in a trial and then the psychological side is more important, to stand the pressure and avoid mistakes. But naturally you always think that everyone can make a mistake, as it happened to me in 2007, and you can lose a World Championship for a small error. But in a day like yesterday, there were two or three zones where you could make a difference and made the round more complicated than usual, and that is what I like. In the easy trials we need to stand the pressure and avoid any mistakes”.
Being the World Champion, do you feel more pressure, a greater obligation to win?
“In some way, yes, because everyone considers you as the winner before even going out on track, and that is not true. You have to compete and you have to win. Having won so many times does give the feeling sometimes that you have more to lose than to win, so I have more pressure than my rivals, but I think that is good. Winning encourages me to keep the motivation and work harder”.
With eleven World titles and ten European titles it is impossible not to compare your results with that of men. How do you see yourself against them?
“Well. I do some races of the Junior World Championship where I achieved good results competing with men. They are mainly useful to keep me in good form, because they are very tough. It also keeps my motivation to train and try more difficult things. I think that is the secret to reach the level I have”.
Which is your next challenge?
“The first one will be to see what happens at the 2012 Dakar and in that season my aim will be to win again the European and World Trial Championships, an objective that will be very important, as always”.
How do you see Toni Bou in this edition of the World Championship?
“Everyone that follows and knows something about trial knows that Toni [Bou] is well above the rest of the riders. He is in a league of his own and I think that will continue for many years, as he has a technique and a way to ride that no one else has. This year, Adam [Raga] is very strong and he fought hard, but I think Toni is much better than any of his rivals”.
