|
BOU BACK ON TOP IN ITALY
 Toni Bou – Repsol Montesa HRC returned to the top of the podium today following his defeat last weekend in France with his fifth win in the FIM 2008 SPEA Trial World Championship at the grand prix of Italy. Main championship rival, Adam Raga – Gas Gas was second with Takahisa Fujinami – Repsol Montesa HRC finishing in third position.
The Italian round of the 2008 championship was held in the small picturesque town of Tolmezzo in the west of Italy, a short way from the border with Austria. The course was set out over a large area and consisted of a mixture of natural hazards and three man-made sections spread out around the town.
It was Fujinami who set the early pace; leading after the opening six sections, but a five in the seventh section where Bou rode clean and Raga dropped just a single dab, combined with bike problems saw his lead slip away. A confident Bou continued to ride consistently whilst a two-way battle was taking place between Raga and Fujinami. Bou completed the first half of the competition with a comfortable lead, dropping twelve marks to Raga and Fujinami’s twenty-one marks apiece.
Raga saw a chance of his second successive victory on the second lap when Bou dropped five on the sixth section, but the margin was to prove too great to close. Bou now extends his lead over Raga in the overall standings to fifteen points with just four days of competition remaining. Fujinami is a further nine points behind Raga and will have to work hard if he is to claim second place.
In the Junior championship, Loris Gubian – Sherco made it back-to-back wins following his victory in the grand prix of France last weekend with a comfortable win over Alfredo Gomez – Montesa and Matteo Grattarola – Sherco respectively. Gubian now leads the Junior championship standings by four points over Alexz Wigg – Montesa who had to settle for fourth place today with his riding being affected by a knee injury. Sam Haslam – Gas Gas remains third in the overall standings.
The Youth championship saw Adrian Pastorizia – Gas Gas earn his first top podium place of the season by a single penalty over second place Francesc Moret – Gas Gas. Alexandre Ferrer – Sherco occupied the remaining podium position. Jack Challoner – Beta still maintains a comfortable twenty-five point lead over Moret in the Youth championship despite finishing in a lowly sixth position today.
The championship now moves swiftly on to the Czech Republic with the seventh scoring round of the competition taking place in Kramolin next weekend.
HONDA RACING
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: 35 degrees C
Attendance: 10,000
Bou back to winning ways in Italy with Fujinami third
Toni Bou - Repsol Montesa HRC was back to his winning ways at the sixth round of the 2008 FIM SPEA Trial World Championship at Tolmezzo in Italy. He held off a strong challenge from Adam Raga Gas Gas to take his fifth win of the season so far. Third place once again went to team-mate Takahisa Fujinami Repsol Montesa HRC, making this the seventh time this year that these three riders have filled the podium.
The Italian round of the championship moved to the small town of Tolmezzo in the Carnia region, in the far north-eastern corner of Italy. The area was experiencing a heat-wave and the riders were faced with high temperatures in the thirties as they began the event. Several thunderstorms in the run-up threatened the trial, but Sunday was bright and warm and this brought out the Italian trials fans in their thousands.
The trial comprised a combination of natural hazards and man-made sections,created within the town itself. The sections were concentrated in three main areas around the town, creating a total lap distance of some nine kilometres. This meant riders not only had to contend with the sections themselves, but traffic and the fans as they negotiated their way around the outskirts of the town.
It was Bou who set the running on the first lap, picking up a single five, a three and a two with a pair of dabs on the tricky sections as they wound their way up several of the hillside stream beds descending from the mountains surrounding the town. By the end of the first lap, Toni on his factory four stroke had a clear margin of nine marks as he began his second tour.
In contrast, Raga and Fujinami were evenly matched by the end of the first tour, despite difficulties for Fujinami, when his Cota 4RT suffered brake problems and the team were forced to return it to the paddock to make repairs. Their totals of twenty-one marks were reached with the pair only taking the same score on two sections, thirteen and fourteen and the scene was set for an excellent second lap.
As it transpired, Raga was the man on the move for lap two, claiming just eleven marks against Bou's sixteen and Fujinami's fourteen. While this was enough to ensure he would win out against Fujinami, it was not enough to reel in Bou and claim his second win in as many weeks, but it did mean a familiar podium ceremony for trials fans.
Bou - 1st : "Today has been a very strange day. I made two very big mistakes and picked up a pair of fives and at that point, I thought I would not be able to even get on the podium, let alone win. However, I was able to take another victory, which I knew would be important and of course, I’m very happy to do so. The sections here this weekend seemed quite easy, but it was also not difficult to pick up points. I think it was very good for the spectators to have the sections mainly in three areas, but it did mean we had to cover a lot of ground between them. It tends to be a bit easier when the events are more compact."
Fujinami 3rd : "I was very pleased with my riding on the second lap today, but the first lap was a very different story. I made two big mistakes, on sections thirteen and fourteen and picked up five marks on each. That gave me a big problem. These areas were difficult to climb where normally, I would have made less marks. I also had a problem with the rear brake on my bike on the first lap and the team had to take it back to the paddock to repair it, as they could not do so out on the route. That affected my concentration and confidence a little and I had to push to get that back. Overall I was pleased with my second lap, but am not particularly happy to be third again."
Laia Sanz Repsol Montesa HRC had another difficult weekend, finishing the Junior category of the trial in sixteenth place, after a better result on Saturday in the European Championship event.
"Today was a disaster for me worse than a disaster! I feel I rode well yesterday [Saturday] on the European round and even though I finished fifteenth, I was close to the top ten on marks. However, we had a clutch problem and the team changed the engine overnight and this morning, I think I just felt too nervous and stressed. Normally I like these sections and felt I should have been able to do better."
REPSOL – MONTESA HRC
Toni Bou confirms his lead with a new victory and Takahisa Fujinami is with him again on the podium
Toni Bou (Montesa-HRC Cota 4RT) won the eighth scoring event of the World Trial Championship, held this Sunday. This victory, his fifth in the present edition of the championship confirms his lead in the general classification, and with four events to go, he has a 15-point advantage over his closest rival. Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa-HRC Cota 4RT) repeated a third position for the fourth consecutive time and together with Toni Bou, they are the only two riders that have been on the podium in all eight events held up to now. Montesa achieves another victory in the general classification by manufacturers, increasing the brand’s advantage.
The Italian event has been an exciting duel for the first position between the two Montesa HRC riders. Toni Bou was leader at the end of the first lap, with nine points advantage over Takahisa Fujinami, who neutralised the difference, until two mistakes in zones 13 and 14 dashed his chance to win. Laia Sanz (Montesa-HRC Cota 4RT) finished sixteenth in the Junior World Cup event.
Toni Bou: “Last week I lost at the last moment and today I won practically in the final zones, after a tough battle. I’ve managed to regain the points I lost in France and now with one event less to go, the differences are becoming more important. So I’m very about satisfied how things went.”
Takahisa Fujinami: “I was very close to achieving what could have been my second victory this season, but I made two serious mistakes that even cost me the second position. Of course I’m disappointed, although I do value my consecutive podium positions positively.”
The next World Championship event will take place next Sunday, July 6th, in Kramolin
(Czech Republic).
 DOUGIE LAMPKIN
Dougie Lampkin finished the sixth round of the 2008 FIM SPEA Trial World Championship in Italy in seventh place, at the end of what the Englishman described as “a really bad day”. The result means that he drops from fourth in the championship to sixth, as the season moved into its second half.
The sixth round of the championship was based in the town of Tolmezzo, in the far north-eastern corner of Italy and nestling in the foothills of the Alps. The trial consisted of three areas of sections and a combination of man-made and natural hazards. The conditions seemed reasonably straightforward, especially after the thunderstorms, which arrived on Friday and threatened the event.
However, the weekend was dry and very hot, with temperatures in the 30s bringing Italian trials fans out in their thousands.
Lampkin found the going better than he expected after inspecting the sections in the wet on Friday. However, he began to make mistakes soon into the first lap, which his competitors appeared to avoid and he slipped down the leader board rapidly.
He picked up a five on section four when most riders cleaned it and went on to take a bad five on section eleven, to complete the first lap with thirty-nine marks and in seventh place.
Things didn’t get any better for the second lap, with a fall on section eight, which cost him five marks and another bad five on the final section, when his foot dislodged a marker.
Commenting on the day, Dougie said, “I’m very disappointed with today. I started picking up marks early on and dropped too far down to be able to get back. The sections were good and dried out more than I expected, but I simply had an off day, when to succeed, you had to be on it from the start.”
|
