Toni Bou and Gabriel Marcelli will try to repeat last year’s 1-2 to start the 2024 season on top
Almost three months after the end of the X-Trial of Vendeé – the last event of 2023 – the Indoor Trial World Championship is getting back on track. It will do it, like last year, at the Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, where Toni Bou and Gabriel Marcelli managed to win the first 1-2 of the season.
This is a special appointment for the two riders of the Repsol Honda Trial Team. On one hand, Toni Bou – who has won sixteen of the last seventeen editions disputed in the Catalan capital – is looking to add another victory to his record. As for Gabriel Marcelli, he has two second place finishes in the four editions he has competed so far at the Palau Sant Jordi.
Thus, both riders arrive prepared to the opening round with the clear purpose of fighting for both the victory and the championship, which would lead them to the main goal of the team: to achieve the 1-2 finish in the overall classification.
The X-Trial of Barcelona will be the first of the seven events that will complete the 2024 indoor calendar. Chalon-Sur-Saone, Nice, Geneva, Andorra and the Trial of Nations, with one last round to be confirmed, will follow this weekend’s opening.
TONI BOU:
“The start of the 2024 season with our home race is always very special for us, so I’m looking forward to it. We hope to continue in the same positive way as in recent years and fight for victory. Barcelona is always special for us and we arrive there very motivated. We have achieved many victories there since 2006, so we have a little less pressure on us, but it is true that it being the home event means you always want to do well and put on a good show for a home crowd that always supports us a lot.”
GABRIEL MARCELLI:
“Starting the X-Trial World Championship in Barcelona is something that motivates me a lot. It also represents an extra bit of pressure, because the fans have come to see you and you want to show a little more, but normally it is a round that I am good at because the level of difficulty is high. The goal this weekend is to win, after fighting for the victory in the last two rounds of 2023 against Toni. I think that this year I have increased my maturity and I am ready to rise to the top.”
