Toni Bou has claimed his eighteenth consecutive X-Trial world title, by claiming victory after a tough night at X-Trial Andorra la Vella.
In front of a packed crowd at the Poliesportiu d’Andorra, Bou netted the points he needed from a close-fought Grand Final over his two rivals Jaime Busto and Gabriel Marcelli. Both forced Bou to work for this win and each took a point from him – Marcelli with victory in Round One, Jaime Busto topping Round Two.
In the Final, too, Bou initially trailed; a surprise failure in Section Two leaving him four marks from teammate Marcelli. And even when Marcelli failed Section Three, Bou still sat a single mark behind Busto and Marcelli with only two rides apiece remaining. But Bou rediscovered his magic touch to dig himself out as he has so many times before: in Section Four he posted the only clean of the Grand Final on a challenging course, while Busto dropped three marks and Marcelli his second failure. That left Bou to seal the deal in his final ride for a fitting climax.
“What a great way to take the world title, with a win and at home!” Bou enthused. “I started Round One and Round Two with mistakes in each, and in the first crash I bent the handlebars and hurt a finger. The Final was very close and demanding right to the last two, where I was able to make up some points. An X-Trial as closely contested as this really adds value to the title because the young riders are pushing hard and are always closer. The spectators were 10 out of 10 so for me it is a source of pride to have claimed the world title in front of them.”
Busto’s runner-up result moves him into second in the championship standings. but the Spaniard admitted he was not feeling it on the night, “I’m really happy with how things have gone here in Andorra. To qualify top for the final is great, and I knew I was riding well. With things so tight, even a small mistake could make a big difference to the results as we saw. In the final, I just made a couple too many mistakes and ended up second to Toni, which is never a bad thing. Congratulations to him and we’ll take the fight for second on to the next round in Estonia.” Busto said.
Gabriel Marcelli was happy to settle for third, saying, “It was an intense and demanding night, and a Final in which I was looking good until an important failure in Section Three. From then on I never felt quite right. So third is a good result and good points for the Championship.”
Sherco mounted Adam Raga posted his best result of 2024 with fourth, ahead of Toby Martyn who was punished severely for a Section Three crash in Round Two that forced him onto his spare machine and a subsequent failure in Section Five. Sherco rider Benoit Bincaz finished sixth, only two mark back from Raga, and that was enough for him to defend his top-five place in the Standings and ensure his participation in Tallinn next time out. Sondre Haga made a solid debut on the electric bike with seventh, while Aniol Gelabert had a tougher night at the bottom of the pile.
The series now heads to Estonia for the first time. Previously staged as an open event outside of the series, X-Trial Tallinn will this year be the penultimate Round of the 2024 World Championship campaign
