This Saturday evening will see the triumphant return of twenty-five-year-old Spanish rider, Toni Bou - Repsol Montesa as he arrives in Paris for the finale of the 2012 FIM X-Trial World Championship, having already secured this year’s title and confirmed his status as the most successful indoor Trial rider of all time.
Bou’s six consecutive round victories this season have earned him his sixth successive FIM Indoor / X-Trial World Championship. This puts Bou one ahead of the previous record held by Britain’s Dougie Lampkin (current Gas Gas Team Manager) who won five FIM Indoor Trial World Championships during his competitive career.
Although Bou can afford to be relatively relaxed on Saturday evening, he will be pushing hard to continue his winning streak despite having suffered a back injury at the penultimate round of the series in Milan just over a week ago.
Bou’s crash in Milan meant that he ended the round tied on ten marks with Adam Raga - Gas Gas, but overcoming the pain, Bou proved every bit the worthy winner and 2012 champion as he managed to beat Raga in a tense tie-break dual lane race.
Speaking after the last round, Bou said: “I am very happy to win another championship. It is nice to go into the record books as the rider with the most indoor titles.”
Team celebrations were temporarily postponed, however, as Bou went to hospital the next day to get his back checked out and to make sure that he would be well enough to compete in the final round.
“I feel better but I had a huge scare. I heard a very loud 'crack’ in my back,” said Bou after returning from hospital. “But it has improved quickly and today it doesn’t hurt that much, so [thankfully] it is not serious. Despite this incident it has been a fantastic season for me. In recent rounds the other riders have pushed me to the end of the trial and it has been close, but hopefully I can maintain my one hundred per cent record indoors this season by winning the final round in Bercy, Paris.”
However, let’s hope that Bou does not push himself too hard this weekend, as he will have little time to recuperate with the opening round of the 2012 FIM Trial World Championship set to be held in Las Bresse, France in just over four weeks time. Bou will no doubt be aiming to replicate his FIM X-Trial success and claim his six consecutive outdoor World title this year. If he is successful, Bou will increase his total FIM World Championship tally to twelve, equalling that of Dougie Lampkin (who won five indoor and seven outdoor World titles) and setting him on the path to becoming the best outright Trial rider in history.
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