Michael Brown's Open's 2012 X-Trial Championships for Britain
Michael Brown, flying the flag for Britain in the 2012 X-Trial World Championships, finished in 7th place at the opening round of the series in Strasbourg, France. Brown narrowly lost out on a place in the semi-final after a close battle with Takahisha Fujinami (JPN - Montesa) and Loris Goubian (FRA - Gas Gas) in the qualification lap.
Michael's qualification lap was to be admired after a unlucky ballot meant he was first to tackle the five section lap without the knowledge of watching his fellow competitors. Brown, who now wear's a KX energy helmet after recently signing for the UK based energy drink, started the trial with a two on the difficult opening section, but i twas the two five's that ruined scorecard and his chances of impacting in the semi-final.
The British rider failed to clean one of the five sections, and in doing so was three marks from the semi-finals, Spanish wild-card rider, Alfredo Gomez (SPA - Montesa) also failed to make the final after finishing on 23, nine marks off the pace of Michael Brown.
After the event, Michael reflected on his performance, "Today has been a good day for me, the result was not good, but it's only the first round of the championship and I do feel confident on the bike, I'm riding well at the moment.
"There's no doubt that the level of riding in the X-Trial championships is incredibly high, and there's no room for error. I know that I can challenge against Fujinami and Loris Goubian for fifth place this year I'm keen to do that next week and as early in the season as possible".
A familiar Spanish podium concluded the night headed up by multi world champion, Toni Bou (SPA - Montesa) ahead of Adam Raga (SPA - Gas Gas) and Albert Cabestany (SPA - Sherco).
Michael now plans to go to Barcelona for five day's of practice before the second round of the X-Trial Championships in Geneva next weekend.