Toni Bou and Takahisa Fujinami, leader and third place in the TrialGP World Championship, will this weekend dispute the Dutch TrialGP in Zelhem, some 40 years after the sole occasion that the top flight competition was held in the Netherlands.
The Trial World Championship has a date with history this weekend in Zelhem. On the one and only occasion that the Trial World Championship was held in Holland, none of the riders active today had even been born. This coming Saturday and Sunday, the Dutch TrialGP hosts a world championship event for the first time in four decades, after the previous one which took place in Norg and was won by Ulf Karlson aboard a Montesa.
Zelhem is a small town of 11,000 inhabitants in the northeast of Holland, about 150 kilometres from the capital of the country, Amsterdam. The trial will consist of two fifteen-section laps on a course of just one kilometre.
Repsol Honda Team arrive in Holland on cracking form after the double podiums picked up in Japan. Toni Bou is firmly established at the top of the championship leader board after wins in the three trials disputed so far (Italy and two in Japan) and is confident of extending the positive streak of results. The Repsol Honda Team rider has 60 points, 11 more than the nearest second place rider in the overall standings, Adam Raga. Third in the table lies Takahisa Fujinami. Bou’s Repsol Honda Team partner has amassed 40 points and has a five-point margin over the fourth placed rival.
The Dutch TrialGP qualification will take place on Saturday 22nd at 15:30 with the main event on Sunday 23rd kicking off at 09:00. The prize-giving podium is scheduled for 15:45 p.m.
Toni Bou
After the Japanese Grand Prix, where everything went really well, we now return to Europe to compete in Holland, where we have never been before. We hope that the trial will have a world championship level and I hope we can get a good result. We are very happy and highly-motivated too and we will look to continue the successes achieved so far.
Takahisa Fujinami
I am very enthusiastic and motivated to get back on the bike for these two consecutive world championship trials. The results in Japan have really charged my batteries up and I’ll try to keep on this track. In Holland, as it’s a new place, nobody has an advantage, so hopefully I’ll be able to get a good result.
