Toni Bou (Montesa Cota 4RT) continues unbeaten in the X-Trial World Championship after his victory in the Marseille Indoor Trial, the third scoring event. These three victories consolidate the position of the Montesa rider as leader of the championship with 21 points advantage over his two closest rivals when the competition has not yet reached its middle point.
Toni Bou began the event displaying his superiority clearly in the qualifying lap held on Friday (6 points) and was again in front in the semi-final, with a single point. The world plurichampion adopted an aggressive tactic in the long zones, so as to avoid penalisation for excess time as far as possible.
Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa Cota 4RT) accessed the final again, after qualifying fifth (23 points) and ending the semi-final with 15 points. The Japanese rider was out of the fight for podium positions at the beginning of the final due to a bad fall in the parallel race against his teammate, continuing with a pain in his shoulder that affected his performance in the remaining zones.
Toni Bou: "The zones were very long and required not only good technique, but also riding fast to get through them without exceeding the time limit. I chose to take risks and this led me to end the semi-final with six points less than the second competitor. I didn't change my tactics in the final, which I began adding five points in the first obstacle by trying to go too fast. I performed well and again felt very comfortable on the bike and confident in myself. This is a good time for me, I'm really enjoying it, every victory is more motivation to continue the struggle".
Takahisa Fujinami: "It was important for me to be again in the final and I achieved this after quite a close semi-final. It was a pity about my fall in the parallel race with Toni. I wanted to beat him, like with any other rival in the same situation, but I fell and hurt my shoulder badly. In that state, and later penalizing another five points in the first individual zone, I couldn't look forward to anything better”.
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