TOULY’STOPSPOT
France
Just imagine the scene in your own mind: turning up in your home country with one hand on the FIM Trial125 World Championship. French rider Kieran Touly is on home soil riding a French motorcycle in front of his French fans — we take it you are getting the picture?
Very proud of his birthplace, the resurgence in France as a trialsriding nation is on the up and this exciting young rider is embracing the opportunity with both hands to be a part of it, with the backing of the home federation. On the day he duly delivered the ride that would see him crowned the 2019 FIM Trial125 World Champion.
QUALIFYING: You can guarantee, if you put the youth and exuberance of opening the throttle and going for gold along with some warm sunshine it is always going to throw out some exciting racing, and that’s what it did at the series finale for this FIM class in France. In qualifying it was Touly’s fellow French rival Arthur Rovery who was out early to set a scorching clean time of 22.78; it looked fast and it was. Touly was out next and he was straight away on the ‘gas’ to record a time two seconds quicker!
In Q2 and the last rider out, it all went wrong for Touly as he crashed out but he had done enough in Q1 to give him a decent starting position on competition day, as he would be the second from last to start in front of the pole sitter Alex Canales on the Gas Gas from Spain.
COMPETITION: The riders had made many changes to their little 125cc machines to cope with the high-altitude venue at around 1,700 metres above sea level at the small winter ski resort town of Auron to extract the maximum power from their machines. The 15 hazards had been plotted to push both the riders and machines to the limit, which resulted in some very exciting riding over the four-kilometre course with a mixture of challenging terrain including rocks, dry river beds and steep climbs.
Once again the sun shone on the venue, and as expected Kieran Touly came out looking to be at his very best and he did not disappoint. On the toughest hazard of the day, number three, in a dried up rocky river bed he used his strong legs twice to keep on the move as Spain’s Pol Medinya showed his ability with the best ride of the day, losing just a single mark on the TRRS. As the lap closed Kieran Touly, on four marks lost, held a clear fivemark advantage over Arthur Rovery on nine.
On the second lap, Touly further increased his advantage to take the win as Rovery struggled to maintain his form, but he had done enough on the opening lap to secure the second step on the podium, and Spain’s Alex Canales did just enough to keep ahead of Italian Alberto Rabino for third position. It was a delighted Kieran Touly who sung his heart out with Arthur Rovery to the tune of the French national anthem on an emotional day made even better when Alexandre Ferrer took the Trial2 win.
RESULTS: 1: Kieran Touly (Scorpa-FRA) 20; 2: Arthur Rovery (Sherco-FRA) 31; 3: Alex Canales (Gas Gas-ESP) 35; 4: Alberto Rabino (Beta-ITA) 36; 5: Pol Medinya (TRRS-ESP) 44; 6: Pau Martinez (Vertigo-ESP) 48; 7: Marco Mempoer (Beta-AUT) 56; 8: Enzo Rossi (Scorpa-FRA) 74; 9: Gaudi Vall (Gas Gas-AND) 92; 10: Philipp Eberharter (TRRS
AUT) 119; 11: Jake Eley (Beta-GBR) 125.