Following a four-week break, the FIM Trial World Championship will continue this coming weekend at Mt Tarrengower in Australia. Reigning Champion, Toni Bou - Repsol Montesa from Spain will be aiming to extend his lead in the World Pro class as well as make history by winning the first-ever Australian Trial GP. Eleven Australian riders will join the fold, competing in the Junior and Youth categories, and also in this season’s newly introduced Open International division.
Seven nations - Australia, France, Spain, Japan, Great Britain, Italy and Norway - will be represented in this weekend’s Australian event, which will be enacted over two days - Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th May. The potentially challenging course through Mt Tarrengower will cover eleven kilometres and consist of two laps of fifteen sections on each day.
Bou will begin the weekend with a six-point advantage over his second-placed compatriot, Adam Raga - Gas Gas. Although Bou was the overall winner in France he will not have been satisfied with his uncharacteristic second place on the first day. His chasing countryman will be looking for more consistency this time out as whilst Raga beat Bou on day one he dropped to disappointing fifth place on the final day of the French GP.
This weekend’s Australian round will be a closely fought battle as Raga is just one championship point ahead of fellow Spaniards Jeroni Fajardo - Beta and Albert Cabestany - Sherco who are tied on thirty points apiece and are third and fourth in the current standings. Following in fifth place is World series veteran Takahisa Fujinami - Repsol Montesa from Japan. Completing the World Pro rider line-up will be (in no particular order) Great Britain’s James Dabill - Beta, Michael Brown - Gas Gas, Jack Challoner - Beta and Alexz Wigg - Gas Gas; Daniel Oliveras - Ossa and Pere Borrellas - Gas Gas from Spain; Italian Matteo Grattarola – Gas Gas; and Loris Gubian - Gas Gas from France.
The Junior category is currently led by Alexandre Ferrer - Sherco from France. Ferrer won on both days of the French opening round and will be looking to continue his domination in Australia. Cedric Tempier - Sherco (also from France) and Francesc Moret - Montesa from Spain, who are currently ranked second and third, will be amongst his main rivals.
The top-three front runners in the Youth class are Steven Coquelin - Gas Gas (France), Bradley Cox - Beta (Great Britain) and Oriol Noguera - Sherco (Spain). Another rider to watch out for in this category is Norway’s Sverre Lundevold - Beta who made an impressive start to his World debut in France, winning on day two. Lundevold sits just one point behind Noguera in fourth place.
Providing home interest, seven Australian riders will compete in the Junior and Open International categories, including Gas Gas riders Boyd Willcocks, Timothy Colemans, Chris Bayles, Kyle Middleton, Beta riders Neil Price and Jake Whittaker, and Sherco rider Kevin Zarczynski. A further four Australians will compete in the Youth category, including Blake Fox and Jonathan Chellas both on Gas Gas and Sam King and John Haynes who will be Beta mounted. Each of these Australian competitors will be hoping to earn a podium placing on home soil in their nation’s first ever World Trial GP.