Toni Bou continues to break records in the Trial World Championship. Despite his 22 titles, the rider from Piera had a new challenge within his reach, which was to surpass Dougie Lampkin’s 99 victories and thus become the rider with the most victories in the top category of the world championship.
Toni Bou went out to his 200th GP with the “pole” and the objective of climbing back to the top of the podium in one of the toughest seasons in memory, where in addition to overcoming the significant back injury of a few months ago, the level of competition is getting higher and higher. This is something that can be seen in the tight scores in the last GPs and the remarkable progression of riders such as Busto or Fajardo.
In Portugal we witnessed a technical trial, with great obstacles and harsh weather. Many of the zones were “all or nothing”, so any mistake took a heavy toll on the rankings. The riders in front, such as Raga or Fajardo, found some more broken sections, with moss and a line that was difficult to recognize.
We can say that Bou sealed the Trial on the first lap. With only one point on his card, to 9 for his closest rival, Fajardo, and 18 for Busto, third classified, the rider from Montesa had the race practically in his pocket. Problems in this first lap for Raga, who finished eleventh and with a partial of 39 points.
The second and final pass through the zones was not so brilliant for Bou, but he achieved a crushing victory, followed by the revelation rider of this season, Jeroni Fajardo, who continues to show himself as one of the strong candidates to fight for the title to Bou. Jaime Busto, his teammate, once again put in a great performance and completed the podium. Fourth Cabestany, with better and better feelings about his new Beta. Raga was finally fifth and saved the record after a more successful second lap. Oriol Noguera’s hard-fought and brilliant seventh place in this top category is worth mentioning.
Great role of the Spanish riders in the rest of the categories. In Trial2 victory for Dan Peace, followed by Aniol Gelabert and Gabriel Marcelli. In Trial125 victory for Billy Green, followed by Pablo Suárez and Martín Riobo.
DECLARATIONS
Toni Bou
I’m very happy: I would never have imagined getting here. I didn’t know about the 200 GPs, I don’t usually look at the numbers, but I’m very excited to reach 100 victories, but even more to know that I’ve done 50%, which I think is incredibly effective. Today I felt very good about the injury, I’m getting better every day, so I’m very happy. We had to push hard today as the opponents are very strong. We will continue to fight hard for this difficult championship.
Jeroni Fajardo
I’m very happy because today we completed a very good trial. It has been a very hot day, although despite this things have gone quite well for me from the beginning. Only Toni [Bou] was one step ahead of me today. But otherwise, it’s been an amazing race for me. We had a great first lap and in the second, despite the tiredness, we managed to keep up the pace to get a second position that tastes like glory.
Jaime Busto
The truth is that we are quite happy with how the whole weekend went. Yesterday in qualifying we got a good result, finishing second. Whereas today we started the race in quite sweltering heat and I made a couple of mistakes on the first lap. But in the second half I managed to fine-tune my riding a bit more and, overall, it was a positive weekend for us. Now it’s time to keep training to improve a little more. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Jeroni [Fajardo] on his run again.
Adam Raga
I’m disappointed with the result. It’s far from the place I want to be. During the first lap I made some mistakes in areas where it was “all or nothing” and although I was close to overcoming them in the vast majority, in the end I loaded up on points. We will continue training to get back to the top positions.
Takahisa Fujinami
Today was a very hard day for us: things weren’t going well for us. After the first lap the qualifying was very tight, as everything was really very difficult. We will keep working for the next race and I want to congratulate Toni for the 100 wins, I’m very happy for him and for the whole team.
PORTUGAL GP STANDINGS
TrialGP GP Portugal
Trial2 GP Portugal
Trial125 GP Portugal
VIDEOS GP PORTUGAL
