BOU TAKES ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO HIS FIRST OUTDOOR WORLD
CROWN
 In
what marks the start of a hectic few weeks for the 2007 FIM
SPEA Trial World Championship riders, Spaniard Toni Bou –
Repsol Montesa HRC took another step towards his first World
outdoor title with his sixth victory at the Italian Grand
Prix held in the small town of Erba north of Milan. His main
contender for the 2007 title, Adam Raga – Gas Gas was
second with Takahisa Fujinami – Repsol Montesa HRC finishing
third.
This was to be an event that Bou was to lead from start to
finish, particularly after Raga dropped two fives in the opening
four sections. With such strong contenders at this level of
competition, such mistakes are very hard to recover from.
Bou finished the first lap on a score of twelve to Ragas twenty
six. It was Marc Freixa – Scorpa who found himself in
third place at the end of the first lap on thirty one marks
with Fujinami just three marks behind. However, Freixa was
unable to sustain this in the second lap as the former World
champion returned the lowest score for the lap dropping just
ten marks.
It was to be a trial with several dramas. First Albert Cabestany
– Sherco suffered what at first appeared to be a serious
crash on section three in the first lap, however after a short
rest he was able to continue. Tsuyoshi Ogawa – Montesa
was forced to retire after a nasty fall from the highest point
on the indoor section fourteen on the second lap, but again
his injuries are not serious.
In the Junior championship, Michael Brown – Beta continued
his dominance of the season to win and make it six wins from
seven days of competition with a convincing win over Loris
Gubian – France and home rider Andrea Vaccaretti –
Montesa. Brown now has a thirty two point lead in the series
standings over Alexz Wigg –Gas Gas, who finished fourth
today. Gubian, with his second place today closes the gap
on Wigg to nine points.
The big surprise of the day came in the Youth 125cc championship
when USA rider Patrick Smage – Sherco, who is partaking
in his first championship competitions in Europe took victory
over Alfredo Gomez – Gas Gas who had dominated the championship
to date. Ross Danby – Gas Gas took the remaining podium
position. Gomez still maintains a twenty four point lead over
Danby in the championship standings with Alexis Cervantes
– Sherco in third place.
The championship now moves swiftly on and returns next weekend
in Myslenice, Poland, and then onto the Czech Republic the
weekend after that.
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