With a twenty-one points advantage in the general standings Toni Bou – Repsol Montesa will very much have a straight eighth FIM X-Trial World Championship in his sights this coming Saturday night when the current series arrives in Milan, Italy for the penultimate round. The possible permutations of how the reigning champion can retain his crown are numerous, but in simple terms as long as Bou ends the evening with a twenty-point gap over his nearest challenger in the title race, he will become King once again for an incredible eighth successive year.
To date Bou’s title defence has been faultless, with three wins from three starts in Sheffield, Great Britain – Marseille, France and Barcelona, Spain. However with the exception of the last round in front of his home fans, where Bou was completely dominant, he was pushed right to the final section in both of the opening rounds to secure his first two victories of the season. There is no doubt that the new head to head format adopted this year has created some of the closest contests the series has seen in more recent times.
Behind Bou the tussle to become vice World champion remains as close and tense as ever with the usual duo of Albert Cabestany –Sherco and Adam Raga – Gas Gas having re-sharpened their swords for what has become an annual and sometimes ill fated contest battle over the years. With the wounds of being beaten to the runners up spot by Raga in 2013 still sore, Cabestany currently holds the upper hand, but only by three points over the Gas Gas teamster as they head to Milan. So far Cabestany has not been off the rostrum with his second place at Sheffield being followed up by a pair of third spots in Marseille and Barcelona. After a title damaging fifth place at the opening encounter Adam has then bounced back to be Bou’s nearest challenger at the later two rounds to set up yet another fight to the death with Albert.
Jeroni Fajardo – Beta currently holds fourth position in the championship table as the now twenty-nine year old has once again failed to shine despite a strong initial showing in Sheffield. Two fifth places in France and his home round in Spain have left him clinging on to his top four placing with just two rounds remaining. Fajardo now finds himself under extreme pressure, and with only a single point lead over his Beta teammate James Dabill who in contrast has been producing his best form at recent rounds. Both in Marseille and Barcelona the British rider has been within touching distance of the podium and will be looking to make his first visit to the box this season in Italy, which will be the home event for his Beta factory team.
The current top six is rounded out by Takahisa Fujinami – Repsol Montesa whose best result to date came at round one, when he finished fourth despite this being his come back ride after being side lined for several months by a serious knee injury. Since then the popular Japanese rider has been unable to repeat that kind of form and has only scraped through to the semi-final at the next two events. Loris Gubian – Ossa and Jorge Casales – Gas Gas will resume their personal battle in Italy for seventh and eighth places in the series respectively with them currently tied on ten points apiece. The Italian fans will be keen to support their own riders as Matteo Grattarola – Gas Gas and Matteo Poli – Ossa enter the fray in Milan as the chosen two wild card participants alongside the eight permanent competitors for this penultimate round of the 2014 series.