Toni Bou closes first half of X-Trial season as leader

Bordeaux hosted the fourth round of the X-Trial World Championship at the packed Arkéa Arena. The French city witnessed Toni Bou’s third victory this season and Gabriel Marcelli’s fifth place, which keeps him third overall.

Toni Bou made a comeback after incurring a 5-point penalty in the first zone. These points would make him classify as the second best rider from the first round. However, the Repsol Honda team rider held his nerve and registered the best time on the second lap, to go through to the final. In it, Bou made a mistake again on the first section, but held on for victory.

Gabriel Marcelli did not have his best performance. Two errors costing five penalty points in the first two sections hindered him the rest of the night. In the first round he was fifth, and in the second he repeated that position, missing out on the final by four points.

With half of the season over, Toni Bou leads the way by 79 points and Gabriel Marcelli is third overall with 46. The next round is on October 7th in Andorra.

Statements

Toni Bou

“All of our rivals pushed a lot from the first round. In the final we all made mistakes, especially on the first zone. These things that can happen, and the important thing is that we were able to improve. It has been a very nice race, especially for the fans. We were very nervous, but we were able to get a very important victory. The first half of the season closes with three wins and a second position, but everything was very tight I am very happy with the result and with the work from the team. Let’s keep it up!”

Gabriel Marcelli

“We took fifth position, which is not the result we wanted. We wanted to get on the podium, and if possible win. But that’s racing and you can’t always be at the top. I made mistakes on both of the two rounds and wasn’t at the level I should have been. Now a break in the season is coming, I’ll take the opportunity to work on the mistakes and come back stronger at the next event. The positive we can take from today is that we know what the mistakes are and that way we can learn from them, and also learn to manage our nerves”.