2017 FIM X-Trial
Pressure or no pressure, does the accolade of a twenty times FIM World Champion lie okay on the head of Toni Bou? He is without a doubt the rider who has dominated trials in the last decade but ‘can he keep winning?’ must be the question on everyone’s lips. Spain welcomed the opening round of the 2017 FIM X-Trial World Championship and its eight riders, made up of seven fixed and one wild-card, to the Palau Sant Jordi stadium which sits high above the city of Barcelona. This iconic indoor trials event celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. It started the trend of bringing the sport to the public from when it first held this motorcycle competition in the city’s Palais des Sports stadium way back in 1978. Despite the challenge of the world’s best motorcycle trials riders, at the end of a night of action another string was added to the ‘Bou’ of the winning rider on his four-stroke Repsol-Honda.
With the impressive stadium modelled around the indoor event, one third of the stadium was closed off, but the remaining space was full to the rafters as the crowds came out to witness the fortieth edition of the Barcelona Indoor Trial.
QUALIFYING
With this being the opening round of the 2017 series all the riders knew that nerves would play a major part of the qualifying process. They only had five hazards to attempt to find the four riders who would go through the process to the final from the eight starters.
Riding as a fixed rider in the championship for the first time in his young career, Germany’s Franz Kadlec showed no sign of early nerves as he took an early advantage over his wild-card rival Jamie Busto in the first challenge. This was the speed section, which was timed over a single defined lap taking in parts of the five hazards. Kadlec took an early advantage over his Spanish rival by a single second-time penalty to force Busto to attempt the five hazards first. Busto looked very confident, parting with just eight marks as Kadlec suffered a heavy fall early in the hazards, finishing on a total of twenty which would leave him down in eighth at the end of the proceedings.
The next two riders into the arena would be the experienced Jeroni Fajardo and Great Britain’s James Dabill. In 2016 they had been team riders at Vertigo, but now it was gloves off as Dabill had moved to Gas Gas as their number one rider. Spanish rider Fajardo took first blood as he got the better of his rival in the timed race as Dabill crashed out. Looking very confident the Vertigo rider out-pointed Dabill, parting with just six marks, as the English rider’s form deserted him leaving him down in seventh at the finish.
Next up it was full gas from Japan’s Takahisa Fujinami who took the Repsol Honda to a narrow victory over Albert Cabestany on the Sherco by a very close few fractions of a second. Cabestany had a nervous start, but after losing six marks in total his Japanese rival could not make the best of his advantage, and he knew that his twelve-mark loss would not allow him into the final.
In was now the turn of the two Barcelona hot shots Toni Bou and Adam Raga. It all started with Toni winning the sprint by only a couple of seconds, but they both then failed the first hazard as they slipped off the concrete pipes. The next four hazards would be a test of nerves as much as anything, leaving no room for mistakes, but they both kept their feet firmly on the footrests to join Cabestany and Fajardo in an all-Spanish final.