Bou Finishes Them Off in France X-Trial Final
R
epsol Honda teammates
Toni Bou and Gabriel Mar-
celli battled for top honors at
the FIM X-Trial Championship
finale in France, November 11.
Bou finished out the champion-
ship with six wins out of the
seven rounds. The Spaniard had
already clinched the 2023 title at
the previous round in Spain.
In France, Bou and Marcelli
battled tooth and nail, and a tie-
breaker was needed to decide
the night's winner, which went
Bou's way.
"I want to congratulate Gabri
on the end of the season he has
had," Bou said. "For me, today's
race was different, with hardly
any pressure, although Gabri
and Jaime [Busto] made things
very difficult for me in the final
where, in the end, I took the
victory. I am very proud of the
consistency shown throughout
the season. We have achieved
many victories and always been
at the front, so I am very grate
-
ful to my team for their work.
I have achieved much more
than I could have imagined in
my sporting career, but I like to
compete and have fun and with
the level of the young riders we
will continue to do so."
"Maybe at the beginning, I was
a little nervous, but when I went
into the final, I became calmer,"
Marcelli said of his night. "Over
-
all, I think I rode at a very good
level. I was fighting side by side
with Toni until the last zone, and
we went to the tiebreaker zone.
I'm very happy with how things
have gone this year; we have
made a lot of progress, which
means that next year we will be
able to take another step for
-
ward."
The next-closest rider on the
night was third-place Jaime
Busto. The GasGas rider ended
the evening with 25 points to
Bou and Marcelli's 13, but third
was good enough to keep sec
-
ond in the championship by just
five points over Marcelli.
Aniol Gelabert (Beta) and
Adam Raga (TRS) went 4-5 on
the night.
CN
WIND
IN THE
P34
Toni Bou (left) finished
out his championship-
winning X-Trial season
with a hard-fought win
in France over Repsol
Honda teammate Gabriel
Marcelli (right).
