Tomorrow will see the once Olympic Palau Sant Jordi arena host round four of 2015 FIM X-Trial World Championship. This will mark the thirty-eighth edition of the long history of this event in Barcelona, with the competition first gaining World status back in 1996, four years after the city had hosted the summer Olympics.
Marc Colomer was the winner of that initial World Cup event in ’96 and would go on to win a year later too. Dougie Lampkin interrupted Colomer’s run of victories as he took to the top step of the podium in 1998, before Marc took a final win before handing over the mantle to his British rival. Lampkin notched up two more Barcelona successes in 2000 and 2001 before a young Adam Raga began his period of dominance.
Raga was then to become the new King of Barcelona with four wins on the bounce from 2002 to 2005 inclusive before a certain Toni Bou brought his reign to an end in 2006. Adam conquered the Palau Sant Jordi one last time in 2008, as the arena then became Toni’s Kingdom. Bou has won a record eight times in Barcelona to date – 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014. The event being absent from the FIM calendar in 2012 spoiling Bou’s latest winning run, at what remains perhaps the most important and biggest stop on the tour each year. Bou and co will be back in Barcelona tomorrow, so the next chapter of this long event is about to be written.
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