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BOU, WORLD CHAMPION FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR
 Toni Bou sealed first position in the Indoor Trial World Championship 2008 by winning the last round held in Madrid, Spain.
The Repsol Montesa HRC’s rider took an amazing victory which saw him overcome the challenges of Adam Raga and Albert Cabestany in the general standings to assure himself of first place overall.
Bou put Raga under pressure during the whole trial and finally the Repsol Montesa-HRC star finished in first place and in doing so claimed the Indoor crown.
In the qualification lap Bou rode to the maximum from the very first second and attacked the circuit with excellent riding, clinching the business class ticket for the final, ahead of Adam Raga, who also made a fantastic start despite two fives at the beginning and in last part of the lap.
Albert Cabestany didn’t have such a good start, but a good high jump and excellent timing allowed him to defend third place for the final. The Sherco rider put on a good performance in the final lap and thanks to the double lane race he achieved the second place in the podium.
Raga made too many mistakes in the final lap, but even only having just achieved a third position in Madrid, he assured himself of second position overall.
For this final round James Dabill was replaced by Dani Oliveras who made his debut in an Indoor Series. Oliveras start quite well but he couldn’t achieve more than seventh position.
Repsol Montesa-HRC rider Takahisa Fujinami put on a nice performance in the first lap, but a terrible mistake in the high jump saw him fail in getting through to the final.
The veteran Dougie Lampkin had another poor ride and only finished in sixth position.
The Indoor Trial World Championship 2008 arrived at the final round in front of 7500 spectators who witnessed Toni Bou becoming king of the Indoor championship for a second consecutive year with Adam Raga and Albert Cabestany joining him on the final podium.
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REPSOL – MONTESA HRC
Toni Bou regains the world championship, celebrating it with a new victory
This Saturday, Toni Bou (Montesa-HRC Cota 4RT) regained the title of World Indoor Trial Champion, a success sealed with his victory in the fifth and final scoring event, held in the Community of Madrid Sports Palace. After having left the championship virtually decided in the previous event, it would have been enough for the Montesa rider to participate in this last championship event to obtain the point needed to be proclaimed champion. Nevertheless, Toni Bou was determined to close the championship with a new victory, an objective that was clear even from the classification lap, which he ended as leader and with only five penalty points. And the champion was relentless in the final, winning for the first time in the Spanish capital.
Toni Bou ended the World Championship having obtained 48 of 50 possible points after his four victories (Marseille, Granada, Milan and Madrid) and one second position (Barcelona). Born on October 17th 1986 and resident in Piera (Barcelona), Bou obtained his first trial title at the age of 13 (Junior Champion of Catalonia), followed by the Spanish Junior Championship (2001), the Youth Trial European Cup (2002), the European Championship (2003) and the Spanish absolute Championship (2006). In 2007 he joined the Repsol-Montesa HRC Team and at the end of that same year he had also won world the Indoor and Outdoor championships, the Spanish Indoor Championship and his third victory, all consecutive, as a member of the Spanish team in the Trial des Nations.
Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa-HRC Cota 4RT) almost entered the final again, but a mistake in the high jump cost him three points and what would have been his third consecutive podium position.
Toni Bou: “A championship as short as this one, with just five events, puts a lot of pressure on you, as it is very difficult to recover from any loss of points. I think the key to my title was the victory in Granada. I'd just won second place in Barcelona and had a bad fall that I was afraid might even stop me from continuing. I got over it, gave it everything I had and despite competing with a cut eyebrow, managed to win and increase my advantage as leader. I think I couldn’t really ask for more after winning four out of the five events. There’s no doubt the team did an extraordinary job. Now we have to refocus and concentrate on the open-air world championship, that’s going to start in a couple of weeks and where we will also defend the title with everything we've got.”
Takahisa Fujinami: “I wanted to end the championship with a podium position and be with Toni in his victory but it wasn’t to be, I made an error of judgement and was left out of the final. I ended the championship with satisfactory results, but hope to do better in the outdoor world championship.”
Dougie Lampkin
Dougie Lampkin completed his torrid 2008 World Indoor Championship campaign with yet another disappointing result. The fifth and final counting round of the much reduced and altered series held in Madrid, Spain saw Lampkin take sixth position for the fourth time this season.
Ever since the opening round in France back in mid January Dougie has struggled with the intense schedule of adapting to and developing his new two stroke mount whilst trying to achieve some kind of level of success on the unforgiving indoor circuit. Four sixth places and one seventh spot at that initial event in Marseille have left Lampkin in sixth position in the final standings with little to show for his efforts.
Lampkin’s hefty total of thirty three marks consisted of no less than six maximums in the nine observed sections that made up the heat. A steadying dab in the opening hazard of the night was one of Dougie’s best performances of the evening, and was only bettered by the two cleans he recorded at sections five and nine.
The night was to come to an even more bitter close as Dougie first failed at the high jump to add another five marks to his score, before being defeated in the dual lane race by his Beta team mate Jeroni Fajardo. Lampkin had been level on marks with his younger rival going into these final two challenges, but was to come off the worse in the closing two battles.
“ The indoor season has finished nearly as bad as it has begun. Tonight has been a complete disaster. Apart from the odd few sections I never felt comfortable throughout the competition and that has shown directly in what can only be described as a very disappointing result for both me and the team.”
“The good news is that the indoor season is now over, so we can switch our full attention to the outdoor World championship that is now looming fast. ”
“From the testing we have been doing, I am confident that we can be far more competitive from now on.”
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