The Indoor Trial World Championship this season is shrouded in changes. The FIM has announced the appointment of French organisation ESDEUX as the new promoter of X-Trial, having signed an initial five-year deal covering the 2022 to 2026 seasons.
ESDEUX is an entity led by the renowned and experienced indoor organiser Bernard Estripeau, who will take over from the current promoter 2Play.
Estripeau has organized more than three hundred indoor events over the course of almost forty years. The Frenchman has created courses at some of the biggest indoor events, including Paris Bercy, Vienna, St. Petersburg, São Paulo, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Milan, Bucharest and, for the past three years, Bernard has built the courses of the FIM X-Trial World Championship.
Another significant change for this season is that there will be modifications to the way drivers are eliminated. The most representative thing is that this year, instead of only 2 riders reaching the final, three will arrive who would compete for the title of world champion.
X-Trial World Championship 2022 calendar
- 11 March X-TRIAL NICE France
- 25 March X-TRIAL CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE France
- 02 April X-TRIAL MADRID Spain
- 10 April X-TRIAL BARCELONA Spain
- 08 October X-TRIAL ANDORRA LA VELLA Andorra
- 21 October: TBA - France
How is Toni Bou experiencing these changes?
The 30-time world champion Toni Bou, commented that He’s ready for this new season “I would tell you that we are not used to making such long breaks, but it is not like that, because after the Covid That’s what happened, I still don’t get used to it, you don’t get used to disconnecting from racing and I hope this goes back to normal.”
The rider, who also wanted to refer to the younger riders who will compete with him this season, said that “we will see if the young riders push or not”.
Bou said: “Bernard Estripeau, the promoter of the championship, has changed some parts of the regulations, such as the Distribution of groups in the different phases, which was something that no pilot liked; Let’s see if this year the Three laps And the race format is more competitive.” The rider was convinced that “this year will be more trial”.
With respect to the preseason Bou explained that he is very happy with the preparation for the season “we have trained a lot with the new bike and I am really looking forward to testing it”, The Catalan has been very motivated for this start of the day March 11 and looking forward to getting back to normal.
