X-Trial Madrid, the opening Round of the 2025 FIM X-Trial World Championship, resulted in Jaime Busto’s fifth career victory.
Defending Champion Toni Bou finished four marks behind him, while Adam Raga completed the podium by virtue of a run-off against teammate Benoit Bincaz.
In a Grand Final characterised by its extreme difficulty level, there were never more than six marks separating all four competitors. Ultimately, Section Two proved decisive in Jaime Busto’s win; he managed a clean there while each of his rivals failed. By successfully defending this lead, Busto had sewn up victory before his final ride.
“I’m super happy to start the season like this with a win!” Busto said. “I was a bit nervous in the first round, but I felt really good. In the final I did start with a mistake, it was a bit of a strange final, but oh well. I was the only one to get through one of the sections with no mistakes, which gave me a lot of confidence, so I’m really happy and looking forward to round two in France!”
Toni Bou found himself in a close-fought battle for second after a dramatic Section One failure. A further dab in Section Four where the other three Finalists were clean left him fourth heading into the last Section, but he was the only rider successfully through and nosed in front of the Sherco duo by just a single mark.
“It was a strange day,” Bou lamented. “We won the first lap and the Super Pole, as well as getting a zero in the first section of the final, but they ended up giving me a five. They had told us that we could skip the final part, but it seems that there was a misunderstanding and that was not the case. It’s a shame because if we had gotten a zero there, we would have had a much greater chance of winning, but the reality is that after that first section, I lost my nerve a bit and things didn’t go well. These things happen and you have to learn from them. Luckily, at the last moment, we were able to recover and ended up taking second place.”
Adam Raga made a fairy-tale return to the Palacio Vistalegre, where he was crowned World Champion for the first time aged 21 back in 2003. On this visit, he delivered his first podium in ten Rounds since X-Trial Bordeaux last year.
“This podium is very special for me because this is where I was World Champion in 2003 and because this is my last appearance in the Spanish capital before I retire after X-Trial Barcelona. I have proven I am still riding at a high level and I enjoyed myself a lot.” Raga said.
Benoit Bincaz missed out on what could have been a third consecutive podium, as he failed the tie-break Section, handing Raga his dream return to the rostrum.
Bincaz had made it to the Final as the last chance qualifier from Q2, eliminating Gabriel Marcelli by a 13.7 second margin including a 10 second time penalty in the new Sprint Format.
Sondre Haga finished 10 marks away from the qualification cut in Q1, Jack Peace and Miquel Gelabert one mark further behind in a disappointing start to the season for the Spaniard.
The next Round of the X-Trial World Championship will be X-Trial Chambéry on 11th January.
