The 2012 Indoor Trial World Championship has started exactly the same as in recent years: with victory for Toni Bou. The Piera rider already warned last week in Sheffield that he is still the main contender to renew the crown this season. After the driving spectacle offered tonight in Strasbourg and the overwhelming superiority with which he won, there is little doubt about it.
With a record of only two points, Bou sentenced after dominating from the early stages. The excitement, therefore, was to see how the rest of the pilots would play their cards. At last the duel was between Raga, Cabestany and Fujinami, who finished in a two-point handkerchief, respectively in this order.
Toni Bou:
“For me it was a perfect night, one of those that is difficult to repeat. The sections were very technical and I solved them with better success than my opponents. It was the best way to start this new season and a very important victory in the defence of the title.”
Takahisa Fujinami: “From the first moment I felt comfortable. During the pre-season I prepared myself thinking about the indoors and I arrived here with a lot of confidence. I’m very close to being on the podium and I think it’s positive to start the championship like this.”
Adam Raga: “Overall, you could say that the overall result of this first race was quite good. The areas were technical and varied, and I liked them.
In fact, in the qualifying round everything went great and we managed to get through it without penalty, which gave us more confidence for the final. We started well and we were very close to Bou, but at the beginning of the second lap I made a mistake at a point where we didn’t have to make a mistake and this ended up weighing us down a lot. This mistake and some others in this final part of the race have been the ones that have distanced us the most from the victory, so we will have to work harder so that they do not repeat themselves and show that we can stand up to it. I’m clear that I can aspire to regain the championship and I hope to show it in the next rounds.”
Alfredo Gómez: “I arrived with only a few days of training due to the crash I had in December training with the enduro bike, exactly 26 days without taking the bike, but this last week I was already starting to find the feeling that is needed for the indoors and I was comfortable again with the Montesa…
We started qualifying and in zone 1 I had a small mistake that made the rear wheel touch the ground being a fiasco, I got a little nervous as it was an area that I could do well, time is passing and in zone 2 I stay on a step, in zone 3 the same, On the 4th I manage to roll a 2 and on the 5th I stay on the entrance step.
It was a bit of a tricky qualifier, behind closed doors and without much atmosphere, next weekend in Geneva I hope I can do better and leave there with a better taste in my mouth.”
The second round of the X-Trial World Championship will be held next Saturday, January 21, in Geneva (Switzerland)
Text: Trialworld / Photos: FIM – Good Shoot
RESULTS
Toni Bou 2 points
Adam Raga 21 points
Albert Cabestany 22 points
Takahisa Fujinami 22 points
Gubian and Fajardo out of the semi-final
Alfredo Gomez and Brown have not qualified
PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION
Toni Bou 20 points
Adam Raga 15 points
Albert Cabestany 12 points
Takahisa Fujinami 9 points
Jeroni Fajardo 6 points
Loris Gubian 5 points
Michael Brown 3 points
Alfredo Gomez 2 points
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