Camprodon, Spain was the scene for the opening round of the 2018 TrialGP season last weekend. The great facilities of the Hotel Puig Francó and the Noassar Trial Area again constituted the perfect venue to give a great start to the 2018 calendar. This season, Vertigo's factory team riders are Jorge Casales and Arnau Farré for the TrialGP class, with the latter not yet competing as he continues to recover from his ligaments injury, and the Italian Matteo Poli, who is set to compete in the Trial2 class at the helm of the Vertigo Vandal.
Last season brought big changes to the competition format, yet the 2018 season introduces more additions to the competition. Saturday saw the introduction of two qualifying sessions for each class. In the first session, riders had to book themselves a proper starting position for the second session, as this second one determines the starting order for Sunday's race. Jorge Casales got 6th place, which meant he secured a good position for Sunday. Matteo Poli had a solid qualification too, and finished in 9th place amongst the Trial2 riders.
In the TrialGP class nerves played a negative role on Casales at the opening sections, as after section 3, he was already carrying 10 marks. But far from losing his cool, Casales started to build a great sequence of sections that allowed him to recover part of the losses he had incurred in the early stages. Once settled and feeling more comfortable with his riding, Casales' great comeback put him in 3rd place by the end of lap 1, carrying 33 marks.
Heavy rain started to fall just right after lap two commenced, but Casales rode smoothly on his second run over the 15 sections, taking part in a great battle against Jeroni Fajardo (Gas Gas) and Adam Raga (TRS) for the last step of the podium. Things were pretty tight between the three riders, with Casales being able to keep up the great riding he had displayed on lap 1 and in the end, only 1 mark separated Casales from the 3rd spot on the podium. He had to settle with 4th place, which was indeed, a brilliant result to start off the 2018 TrialGP Series.
On the Trial2 class, Matteo Poli was coming back to the highest levels of competition after a small break. There were positive thoughts at the end of the day, with Poli finishing in 13th place. At the helm of the Vandal, the Italian showed his great talent on several occasions throughout the day, but in contrast, some small mistakes dropped him out of the Top10. It was a great starting point for Poli, who will keep working hard to get better results in the next races.
JORGE CASALES GIVES A STRONG START TO THE TRIALGP SEASON
Jorge Casales made his Vertigo debut in the TrialGP 2018 season with an impressive performance in Camprodon. On the fight for the podium all day long, he finally ended in an excellent 4th place.
Camprodon was the scenery to host the opening round of the 2018 TrialGP season. The great facilities of the Hotel Puig Francó and the Noassar Trial Area constituted again the perfect venue to give a great start to the 2018 calendar. This season, Vertigo's factory team riders are Jorge Casales and Arnau Farré for the TrialGP class, the last one still recovering from his ligaments injury, and the Italian Matteo Poli, who is set to compete in the Trial2 class at the helm of the Vertigo Vandal.
Last season brought big changes to the competition format, yet the 2018 season introduces more and exciting additions to make the competition even more attractive. On Saturday we lived the first experience with 2 qualifying sessions for each class. In the first one, riders had to book themselves a proper starting position for the second session, as this second one determines the starting order for Sunday's race. Jorge Casales got 6th place, which meant he secured a good position for Sunday. Matteo Poli had a solid qualification too, and finished in 9th place amongst the Trial2 riders.
In the TrialGP class the nerves played a negative role on Jorge Casales at the opening sections, as after section 3, he was already carrying 10 marks. But far from loosing his cool, Casales started to build a great sequence of sections that allowed him to recover part of distance he had lost in the early stages. Feeling more comfortable on his ride, Casales' great come back put him in 3rd place by the end of lap 1, carrying 33 marks on his target.
Then, the rain started to fall just right after lap 2 kicked off. Casales rode nice and smooth on his second run over the 15 sections, holding a great battle against the likes of Fajardo (Gas Gas) and Adam Raga (TRS) for the last step of the podium. Things were pretty tight between the three riders, with Casales being able to keep up the great riding he had displayed on lap 1. In the end, only 1 mark separated Casales from the 3rd spot of the podium. He had to settle with 4th place, which was indeed, a brilliant result to start off the 2018 TrialGP Series.
On the Trial2 class, Matteo Poli was coming back to the highest levels of competition after a small break. Positive thoughts at the end of the day, with Poli finishing in 13th place. At the helm of the Vandal, the Italian showed his great talent in several occasions throughout the day, but in contrast, some small mistakes dropped him under the Top10. Anyway, it was a great starting point for Poli, who will keep working hard to get better results in the next races.
Camprodon, Spain was the scene for the opening round of the 2018 TrialGP season last weekend. The great facilities of the Hotel Puig Francó and the Noassar Trial Area again constituted the perfect venue to give a great start to the 2018 calendar. This season, Vertigo's factory team riders are Jorge Casales and Arnau Farré for the TrialGP class, with the latter not yet competing as he continues to recover from his ligaments injury, and the Italian Matteo Poli, who is set to compete in the Trial2 class at the helm of the Vertigo Vandal.
