This weekend’s penultimate round of the 2012 FIM X-Trial World Championship in Milan, Italy will hopefully bring better fortunes for twenty-six year old Jeroni Fajardo – Beta, whose season to date has been less than impressive after his return to the Italian factory team.
Last year’s one year stint with Ossa was also not without its challenges for Fajardo, however he still managed to finish the series in fourth position, as well as claim two podium spots in Milan and Geneva. Fifth in the current standings, Fajardo now sits only two points ahead of Loris Gubian - Gas Gas after having failed to even make it through to the final in the five rounds to date.
So despite his recent poor run of form, which has not been helped by a shoulder injury sustained during training just before the event in Madrid, Fajardo continues to hold a positive out-look.
“Yes, I am very happy to be back with Beta. The team feels like family to me now. I tried a new project last year, but in the end I was not happy with the bike, as we had many mechanical problems. I am glad to have my old team behind me again. I feel confident that with them and my new bike I can at least finish all of the races and have a chance to fight for the championship.”
From the outside, the changing of teams and bikes, and perhaps Jeroni’s self-imposed pressure to perform for his new employer could be perceived as being at the core of his current string of disappointing performances. Fajardo explains otherwise. “I feel good on the bike, but I am obviously disappointed with my results in the series so far. In five rounds I was not even in one final, so to be sure I am not very happy. But I am training hard and hoping for a much better result in Milan. My objective is to be in the final. I want to take the podium.”
Jeroni continues: “Fifth place is okay. It is always great to be in the top-five in a World championship, but as we often say in the World of trials - if you are fifth then you are last out of the top-five. Right now I am quite far behind Fuji (Takahisa Fujinami), although there are still two rounds to go, so hopefully I can catch him or at least stay in front of Gubian.”
Fajardo is looking forward to returning to Milan for the sixth round of this year’s series on Saturday, as he achieved his best result of the series in Italy last year by finishing as runner-up to Bou on the night.
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