The 2017 FIM X-Trial World Championship season officially gets underway this weekend in Barcelona. Repsol Honda Team will line up Toni Bou, Takahisa Fujinami and Jaime Busto for the Trial Indoor opener in the Catalan capital on Sunday 5th February for the 40th edition of the event.
The X-Trial season kicks off with the Barcelona Indoor Trial which over the years has become something of a ‘classic’ in the trial world. Toni Bou arrives eager to defend his reign of ten world titles. Repsol Honda Team’s incumbent X-Trial champion will start as favourite in a four-trial championship where riders will have to battle hard from the get-go and errors could prove costly. Toni will be looking to dominate from the start after having let last season’s opening date in the U.K. slip through his hands. Earlier in 2017, Bou again took part in the indoor event in Sheffield, U.K. clinching victory on the day, although points do not officially count towards the World Championship.
Toni Bou won’t be alone in Barcelona. The ten-time victor – with the last eight wins on the trot – will appear alongside Repsol Honda Team stalwart Takahisa Fujinami and the promising Jaime Busto. The Japanese rider – who ranked third in the world in the 2016 outdoor discipline and fifth indoors – has yet to shine in the indoor discipline as he has done in the open air. ‘Fujigas’, as one of the most popular riders on the circuit, will have the crowd firmly behind him as always.
Young Basque rider Jaime Busto returns to the Palau Sant Jordi intent on honing his indoor technique. The pressure to produce higher-level results has led to below-par performances on his two previous participations in Barcelona Indoor. This year the Spanish hopeful is on a mission to break the bad spell.
Fans from around the globe will converge on the Barcelona event for a feast of thrilling competition and technique. In time-honoured fashion, the trial begins at 17:00 hrs on Sunday with eight sections to test the eight rider’s skill to the limit.
2017 X-TRIAL CALENDAR
DATE |
STADIUM |
COUNTRY |
February 5 |
Barcelona |
Spain |
March 11 |
Wiener Neustadt |
Austria |
March 25 |
Marseille |
France |
March 31 |
Nice |
France |
FACTS AND FIGURES
- Barcelona Trial Indoor is the blue riband race in the discipline. The event has been disputed forty years consecutively but it’s, for very first time, the opening round of the World Championship.
- The first Barcelona Trial Indoor took place on a Thursday in the old Palacio de Deportes in Barcelona with free access to those in possession of the SoloMoto magazine which organized the event.
- Jaume Subirà, on a Montesa Cota 348, was the winner of the first trial which has since had 11 different winners.
- The first four-stroke bike to triumph in Barcelona was the Honda RTL of Belgian Eddy Lejeune, also the first rider to clinch a hat-trick of victories.
- Toni Bou is the rider with the most victories in Palau Sant Jordi: 10, with a recent consecutive run of eight wins out of the last eight disputed.
- Takahisa Fujinami has finished on the podium four times in Barcelona. Jaime Busto has taken part in the two most recent events as the organisation’s wildcard entry.
Toni Bou
We have prepared the season with great care: working hard at physical fitness and preparing the bike. You have to keep motivated and be at 100% to take the title. The challenge is really complicated, above all after a great all-round year like the last one, but we want to achieve the victory again.
It’s a four-trial championship where you won’t be able to make any mistakes. It will be tough, but we have worked hard in the preseason and we are at 100% to be able to pull it off. The trial in Barcelona will be a great way to start the championship. In addition, it will be the fortieth anniversary and there will be more sections. Let’s see what we find, as there are always surprises; but it is a worthy race to start the championship with. After, we are off to Vienna which will be the most difficult and the one that I like the most: it will be really important to get that one right. The Marseille trial is a fairly easy date, but recently they have included some more technical sections. The Pavilion in Nice is smaller and it will be complicated if the championship is decided there.
Toni Bou Statistics | More Statistics |
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Date of Birth | 17th October 1986 |
Nationality | Spanish |
Place of Birth | Piera, Barcelona, Spain |
Residence | La Massana, Andorra |
Weight | 78,5kg |
Height | 1,76cm |
Racing Number | 1 |
First Race Win | 1999 - February |
First World Trial Win | 2006 - Spanish GP, Nigran |
World Titles | 34 (17 outdoor and 17 indoor) |
Total World Trial Wins | 221 (143 outdoor, 78 indoor) -updated 30/11/2023- |
Podiums outdoor | 1st place: 143 - 2nd place: 39 - 3rd place: 16 -updated 30/11/2023- |
Podiums indoor | 1st place: 78 - 2nd place: 12 - 3rd place: 3 -updated -30/11/2023- |
Takahisa Fujinami
I’m the most veteran in the paddock but I’ve still got the motivation and the results are good. How far can I go? Everything depends on the results…. I don’t set the limit. X-Trial is important, but I have to recognise that my preseason training for indoor hasn’t been so intense and perhaps I have focused more on outdoor. That way I arrive at the championship with no pressure. After finishing third outdoor and having finished one of the indoor events in fourth place, my aim for this year is to be on the podium in some of the season’s events.
Takahisa Fujinami Statistics | More Statistics |
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Date of Birth | 13th January 1980 |
Nationality | Japanese |
Place of Birth | Mie Prefecture, Japan |
Residence | Torroella de Montgrí, Girona, Spain |
Weight | 68kg |
Height | 171cm |
Hobbies | Music and Tennis |
Jaime Busto
This will be my third year as a wildcard rider in the Barcelona X-Trial. After the previous experiences over the last two years, hopefully I will be able to say, ‘Third time lucky’, and be able to finally have a good race. It will be complicated to get into the final, but we are going to fight even though indoor is not really the speciality best-suited to my riding style.
Jaime Busto Statistics | More Statistics |
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Date of birth | 4th December 1997 |
Nationality | Spanish |
Place of birth | Gorliz, Vizcaya, Spain |
Weight | 64 kg |
Height | 172 cm |
Hobbies | Bicycle and motorsports in general |
Private: Miquel Cirera
We are about to start a new season and a new year. The riders have worked really hard in the preseason. It is a short championship which where there won’t be room for mistakes and that puts us all under pressure. That means everyone: riders and team alike. We didn’t make it to some events such as Sheffield and we missed out on that. As far as the riders go, Toni will try to clinch another title and Fujinami will do all he can but he has no obligations. On the other hand Jaime Busto has to strengthen as a rider in this speciality.
Location Information
First edition | 1978 |
Location | Palau Sant Jordi (from 1991) |
Seats | 15.000 (all seats full) |
Organization | RPM-MKTG |
Palau Sant Jordi, Passeig Olímpic, Barcelona, España - View in Google Maps
Records
Podium 2024 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Jaime Busto (GasGas) - Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) |
Podium 2023 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) - Jaime Busto (GasGas) |
Podium 2022 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Adam Raga (TRRS) - Matteo Grattarola (Beta) |
Podium 2021 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) - Adam Raga (TRRS) |
Podium 2020 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Adam Raga (TRRS) - Jorge Casales (Gas Gas) |
Podium 2019 | Adam Raga (TRRS) - Toni Bou (Montesa) - Jaime Busto (Gas Gas) |
Podium 2018 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Adam Raga (TRRS) - Jeroni Fajardo (Gas Gas) |
Podium 2017 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Adam Raga (TRRS) - Jeroni Fajardo (Vertigo) |
Podium 2016 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Adam Raga (TRRS) - Albert Cabestany (Sherco) |
Podium 2015 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Adam Raga (Gas Gas) - Albert Cabestany (Sherco) |
Podium 2014 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Adam Raga (Gas Gas) - Albert Cabestany (Sherco) |
Podium 2013 | Toni Bou (Montesa) - Adam Raga (Gas Gas) - Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa) |