Raga was Faster
Trial World Champs 2014
Adam Raga Steals Win To Take Title Fight To The Wire
Adam Raga – (Gas Gas) stole the narrowest of wins at today’s French Grand Prix held at the ski resort of La Mongie to take the fight for the 2014 FIM Trial World Championship to the wire.
Raga defeated current series leader Toni Bou – (Repsol Honda) by three minutes and eighteen seconds after the arch rivals could not be separated by any means other than the overall time taken by each rider to complete Sunday’s event.
Adam, having completed the Trial in the faster time. Both Raga and Bou finished on two marks, with the same number of cleans, ones, twos, threes and fives, after three laps of twelve sections out on the mountain course. Bou will now take a seven point advantage to his home GP in just over a month’s time, when he will hope to keep Raga at bay as he looks to seal a record breaking eighth straight title.
Jeroni Fajardo – (Beta) followed up the third place he scored at the last round in Great Britain with another podium placing, his fourth of the season to date. Fajardo’s return to form sees him move into fourth spot and now aboveTakahisa Fujinami – (Repsol Honda) in the general standings after the Japanese rider slumped to sixth spot today.
Jeroni ended the day on thirteen marks, nine in front of Albert Cabestany – (Sherco) who with his fourth position failed to make it onto the rostrum for the second time in a row. Jorge Casales – (Gas Gas) rounded out the top five as he looked far more confident on the dry rocks than he had in the wetter conditions of the two previous events.
The fierce looking boulder fields on the grassy hillsides above the town where all the majority of the sections were located actually rode far easier than expected, which resulted in low scoring and nervous battles in all three classes. Bou was far from pleased with the lack of severity, and made his thoughts known at the finish.
The last double round of the World Championship, will be held in the town of Arnedo –La Rioja–,on September 6 and 7.