OBSERVATION: BERNIE SCHREIBER
As we went to print, the Covid-19 situation was still very much a talking point, especially concerning the start of the world championships. Both the 2021 FIM X-Trial and TrialGP World Championship seasons will now start later in the year. The FIM Trial World Championship and, in particular, the TrialGP class, our premier class in trials, is struggling to attract a decent entry. Still, it is very difficult to bridge the gap to make it through the process from Trial125 and Trial2 to arrive at the TrialGP standard. We ask, what is the answer? With both James Dabill and Jack Price now retired from the world championship, the first round is pencilled in for 15th May in Japan. Great Britain will now only have one rider, Dan Peace, in TrialGP; so, how do you bridge the gap?
Well-documented in this magazine is the career path of Yorkshire’s James Dabill. One of the most gifted riders of the more present generation, he had a tough act to follow as Great Britain’s Dougie Lampkin had set the bar so high with 12 FIM world titles to his name. Lampkin had based himself in Spain to be where the action was, and Dabill had spent his early career living in Italy.
To base yourself in Europe is where you need to be, but throw in the cost of accommodation, the ever-present and much-needed minder/van driver/mechanic — whichever way you want to dress it up, this second man is needed — it starts to become very expensive to follow the dream.
TRIAL125
It will always be a challenging introduction to the FIM Trial World Championship, but is it the correct one? Why not introduce an electric class, where the process starts before the Trial125? Since the introduction of the OSET electric trials machines, the youth experience has opened the door to so many young riders who then successfully made a move across the void to the fuel-aspirated two- and four-strokes.
Throttle control and balance are the main attributes to learn at a young age in motorcycle trials’ slow-speed world. It has been proven that the young rider can swop from electric to petrol; they are young, and in the learning process of life, so anything can be achieved with enough desire.
The electric experience could be introduced at the world rounds as a demonstration of trials and so get the young riders onto the ‘circuit’ that is the world championship. This model of selling trials could be used to the youngsters’ advantage by giving demonstrations in the town centres to attract the public; why not? At the moment, the TrialE class only attracts older riders, whereas the young riders are the future. Trial125 is very much still a ‘Dad and Lad’ experience where relationships are ultimately put to the test. The ‘family bank’ comes into play hoping that a manufacturer or a sponsor, usually a family friend, can help fund it further. The riders are so exciting to watch, full of young determination on the 125cc capacity machines. Once again, to succeed, you need to find a back door open to the manufacturers to support a true challenge for the title. As they say, ‘You need to be under the awning’ at the factory transporter to gain that extra level of support needed to succeed.
TRIAL2
Without a doubt, Trial2 is the most competitive class in world trials — full stop! Jack Price won at this level. Yes, it had a different title but is still the same class. Showing his desire to succeed, Jack started in the class in 2014 on the Gas Gas. He was still finding his feet in 2015, eventually finishing the year with a win and seventh overall in the championship.
Names above him, and ones who also made it into TrialGP, included Miquel Gelabert (Sherco-ESP) and Benoit Bincaz (Scorpa-FRA). In 2016 ‘JP’ raised his game, and with some superb sponsorship and support, he took the title for Gas Gas; it was well deserved. In 2017, the series became the ‘Official’ FIM Trial2 World Championship.
Controversially, it left the door open for riders to move down from the top class to the middle tier of the world championship if they wanted to. Is this when the ‘Big divide’ came between TrialGP and Trial2?
As the 2016 T2 Cup World Champion, Jack Price made the bold move up into TrialGP in 2017. He was ready, having served his appropriate apprentice.
Welsh rider Iwan Roberts was the winner in 2017 to take the first official FIM Trial2 World Championship and move to TrialGP, but, in 2018, the series was about to change again. Previously a top ten challenger in the premier class,
Italy’s Matteo Grattarola moved down to Trial2; he was the first to do this, as allowed by the FIM. He had not competed in the FIM Trial World Championship in 2017, having stayed at home to compete in the national championship. He won the FIM Trial2 World Championship, beating Toby Martyn (Montesa-GBR) in 2018, finished second in 2019 to Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa-ESP), who would then move to TrialGP, before beating Alexandre Ferrer (TRRS-FRA) and Martyn, who finished third in 2020. Significantly, Ferrer was the second premier rider to move down to Trial2. As Grattarola moves back up into TrialGP for 2021, will we see Toby Martyn raise the game to the podium’s top step? 2021 will be the hardest-fought battle yet in this class, with at least another half a dozen riders also capable of taking the crown.
TRIALGP
Why have just two riders, Toni Bou (Repsol Honda-ESP) and Adam Raga (TRRS-ESP), dominating this class since Raga won the first of two world titles in 2005 on the Gas Gas, you may ask? The answer is simple as they have been the best two riders for over a decade, constantly pushing each other all the way, showing mutual respect in one another’s riding, two totally dedicated athletes.
The riding level is incredibly high, which has resulted in some very challenging hazards. We have seen this make the TrialGP class into separate groups in the top
positions. In recent times there has been a fight for the podium, usually been between Bou, Raga, Jaime Busto (Vertigo-GBR), Jeroni Fajardo (Sherco-ESP) and Takahisa Fujinami (Repsol Honda-JPN). Then we have a fight for sixth to ninth, and then it becomes the best of the rest.
In 2020, two new names raised their game to make the podium: Jorge Casales (GASGAS-ESP) and Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa-ESP), as Fujinami dropped off the pace and Fajardo was not consistent enough, and neither was James Dabill, still at a high level of riding but just off the pace.
Then we had Miquel Gelabert (GASGAS-ESP) pushing with Benoit Bincaz (Beta-FRA) and Jack Price (Vertigo-GBR), and Dan Peace (Sherco-GBR) the last of the points scorers. To note, neither Bincaz and Price have competed this season due to injury, so what will change in 2021 as both Dabill and Price retire from the TrialGP class?
Jorge Casales, who won the Junior Cup (now Trial2) in 2013, and Jaime Busto, who in 2014 won the World Cup (now Trial2), both have the experience to challenge Bou and
Raga, that is once they find the consistency; surely, will it happen in 2021? Casales went into TrialGP in 2014 to finish seventh on the Beta as Busto arrived in TrialGP in 2015 on the Repsol Honda. Both these Spanish riders have had career ups and downs, but Busto never won on the Repsol Honda! Through these years, we would see, from 15 points scorers in 2015, is now down to just 12 in 2020.
Many outstanding riders have come and gone in the three classes, as the expense and support needed to compete at the very top eludes them.
The crowds have also gone. With 28 FIM Trial World Championship titles, is it a case of ‘Bou will win’? Has he become the victim of his own success? Who knows how long it will last.
WHERE NOW?
TrialGP is missing ‘new blood’ as the only ‘new’ rider to challenge the front runners is Gabriel Marcelli, but will he make the grade?
2021 should see Busto, Casales and Marcelli begin to fight for the podium. Maybe both Miquel Gelabert and Benoit Bincaz could be in there too?
With a top tier of riders reduced to a class of just ten, is it time for the FIM to go back to awarding points to them and not the top 15? Maybe introduce this in all the classes to make points scoring more exclusive, which in turn should make for more action and, possibly, the return of the crowds. Don’t blame Covid-19 for the loss of the crowds; they had gone long before it had arrived.
For world trials to have a future, we have to look at the beginning of the process, not the end. The international governing body, the FIM, and the national governing bodies need to invest in the future of the sport now to secure the future. It is not a quick fix, but you have to start somewhere, so why not with an emphasis on the next generation of electric machines and, of course, the younger riders?