IN
THE
WIND
P40
Toni Bou capped of his perfect
season in the FIM Trial World
Championship with another win in
Spain. PHOTO: HONDA RACING
Bou's Perfect Season
S
paniard Toni Bou (Repsol
Honda) signed off on top to
make it a perfect season with
seven wins from seven starts on
his factory Montesa machinery
at the final round of the 2019 FIM
Trial World Championship at a hot
and humid TrialGP Spain, Sep-
tember 22.
Bou did what he does best—
that's win—while Britain's Emma
Bristow (Sherco) secured the
TrialGP Women's title for a sixth
consecutive time with an unbeat-
en season of her own.
Conditions just north of Beni-
dorm on the Mediterranean coast
were dry and dusty and Bou, as
expected, looked completely at
home. Following his dominance of
Saturday's qualification session,
he had the advantage of starting
last, and he converted this into a
convincing victory, despite incur-
ring eight additional time penalties.
The sections—a mixture of man-
made and natural obstacles—were
super-tough, and Bou collected
three maximums on his opening
lap but, at the halfway stage, he
still led with a total of 17 with his
compatriot Adam Raga (TRRS)
next best with 24. Then, as we've
seen so many times before, when
the going gets tough Bou gets
going, and his lap-two total of just
11 saw him run out a convincing
winner with an eventual victorious
margin of seven over Raga who
picked up four marks on time.
"Today has been very difficult,"
says Bou. "I was pushing very
hard to win, and it was easy to
make mistakes today. I think this
has been the best season in my
career. I have had many victories,
but this has been the year I will
remember as the one I had the
greatest form."
Veteran Japanese rider Taka-
hisa Fujinami (Repsol Honda)
secured his fifth podium finish
of the year—just one mark ahead
of Spain's Jeroni Fajardo (Gas
Gas)—to take third in the champi-
onship, although he was 21 marks
adrift of Raga on the day after
incurring two time penalties.
Fajardo's 11 time penalties
proved to be expensive but he
still finished two marks in front of
fellow Spanish rider Jaime Busto
(Vertigo) in fourth. CN
TrialGP
1. Toni Bou (Mon)
2. Adam Raga (TRRS)
3. Takahisa Fujinami (Mon)
4. Jeroni Fajardo (GG)
5. Jaime Buso (Ver)
