The Gas Gas Factory FG Trial Team riders stood head and shoulders above the others in the French GP held this weekend in Lourdes. A second position and a victory for Jack Price in Trial2 and a double for Jack Peace in Trial125 convert these young Gas Gas riders into the stars of the show. These great results were added to by their teammate, Dan Peace, with two podium finishes with a second and third place. Matteo Grattarola got his best result of the year in TrialGP, with a sixth place on Saturday and is once again, together with Franzi Kadlec, the most outstanding in the maximum category.
The support given by Gas Gas for the pool of young riders has had an almost immediate effect in the results in Trial2 and Trial125 this year, 2016. Classes which are a launch-pad for the young trial riders, both Jack Price as well as Jack Peace, hold a dominating position after their latest victories in the French GP, fifth point scoring event in the World Championship.
Hardly a week after a show stopping performance in San Julià de Lòria, in the Andorran GP, the Gas Gas Factory FG Trial Team riders were once again the stars in the French GP, as Jack Price, with a second position on the podium after a complicated first day due to the rain and mud and the difficult conditions in the zones gained a well earned victory on Sunday. A triumph which just goes to reaffirm the Gas Gas rider’s ability who is in first position in the classification for Trial2, with 36 points above his nearest rival.
This time the British rider was accompanied on the podium with his fellow compatriot Dan Peace, who also put on a brilliant performance in the French GP, with third and fourth position on the podium respectively. Peace climbed to fourth position of the classification, just behind Arnau Farré who, in Lourdes, finished sixth on the first day. A result which he improved two positions on the second day, finally ending up fourth. The RFME team rider, Marc Riba, also riding with Gas Gas colours, added seventh and thirteenth positions.
Meanwhile, in Trial125, Jack Peace continues his steady forward progress in this category of the World Championship. This keen young rider, a specialist on wet ground, scored another double in the French GP. A double victory which meant that Peace reconfirms his position at the top of the 125 class of the World Championship, with an advantage of 22 points over his nearest rival. In this class he also has the company of Christopher Wengler, who is to finish on a Gas Gas bike. The German rider is in third place on the general results table.
In the top class, Matteo Grattarola was once again the star of the team in the French GP. The Italian rider put in a particularly fine performance on Saturday, on a day which was rather tense due to an accident involving one of the support riders from the World Championship which forced the organisers to stop the race before time, specifically in the fifth zone of the third lap.The rider from the other side of the Alps got a fourth place, almost making a podium finsh which eventually got further away to finally finish in sixth place with a triple draw. Despite this, Grattarola achieved his best result in the maximum category of trial in 2016. The next day, the Gas Gas rider finished tenth, a result which after the computations over the weekend helped the Italian rider rise up to ninth position in the general classification of the maximum category of the World Championship.
His teammate in the Gas Gas Factory FG Trial Team, the German rider Franzi Kadlec, added ninth and twelfth position finishes in France, and now occupies the tenth position in the World Championship, just behind Grattarola. However this has been an irregular GP for the other riders of the brand. Gianluca Tournour, still suffering from his rib injury, was unable to finish the day’s riding on Saturday, the same as Hakön Pedersen who was also unable to finish.