Five in a row for Bou

Under heavy rain Toni Bou - Repsol Montesa claimed the 2011 SPEA FIM Trial World Championship, his fifth outdoor title in a row, by winning the second day of the Grand Prix of Europe held at Isola 2000, France. Bou was in devastating form losing only a single mark on his first lap to take the all important victory by eight marks from Adam Raga - Gas Gas who finished as runner-up both on the day and in the general standings. Albert Cabestany - Sherco completed the rostrum once again, and in doing so snatched fourth place in the series as Jeroni Fajardo - Ossa was disqualified for needing outside assistance to finish the Trial. Heavy rain throughout the night and during most of today's Trial forced the organisers to modify several of the sections at the mountain venue. Despite the conditions Bou signalled his intent in the very first hazard, cleaning in some style as Raga was amongst many riders who suffered an early failure. Bou's faultless run continued for most of the first lap, with him only parting with a single dab in the last but one section. Already by the mid-point Bou was eleven marks in front of Raga, and had one hand on the title. Even a mistake in section fourteen on lap two that resulted in a five could not spoil Bou's day, as although Raga responded with the best final lap score, Toni still took the victory by six marks and with it his fifth successive SPEA FIM Trial World Championship. Raga finished well clear of Cabestany who kept an off form Takahisa Fujinami - Repsol Montesa down in fourth spot. Despite a poor weekend for the Japanese rider he still maintained third spot in the championship and played his role alongside Bou in helping Montesa secure yet another Manufacturers' title. James Dabill - Beta and Michael Brown - Gas Gas finished fifth and sixth respectively today, allowing Brown to overtake Loris Gubian - Gas Gas in the final standings and snatch a well earned sixth spot in the rankings. Alfredo Gomez - Montesa made an impressive debut in the World Pro class, a day afer clinching the Junior title, taking seventh position ahead of Jack Challoner - Beta. Italian rider Matteo Grattarola - Gas Gas demoted Gubian into tenth spot, as the French rider failed to shine on the second day of his home GP. In the Junior class with no Gomez, Pol Tarres – Gas Gas and Francesc Moret – Montesa were left to battle for the runners-up spot. However, it was Jonathan Richardson – Sherco who recorded not only his first podium position of the season, but also his first victory with Alexandre Ferrer – Sherco finishing second and Moret completing the Junior podium line-up. Today's result left Tarres and Moret tied on one hundred and twenty nine marks apiece in the overall standings with Tarres taking second position having returned best overall results during the course of the championship. The Youth Championship had also already been decided with Jack Sheppard – Beta taking the Youth title. Due to injury Sheppard settled for spectating at the final weekend of competition in the 2011 championship whilst his fellow contenders fought to climb the championship table. It was young Swedish rider, Eddie Karlsson – Gas Gas who was to take the final victory of the season, recording his first championship win after a tough battle with eventual youth championship runner-up, Cedric Tempier – Sherco. Both riders finished on thirty-five marks and were also tied on the numbers of cleans, ones, twos, threes and fives leaving the winner to be decided on which rider completed the course in the fastest time, a competition in which Karlsson prevailed by the narrow margin of just one minute three seconds leaving Tempier having to accept second place with Steven Coquelin – Gas Gas completing the Youth podium. The Trial paddock will reassemble in Italy in two weeks time, for the final round of the FIM Women's Trial World Championship and the FIM Trial des Nations. <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> Results:

World
1: Bou 8
2: Raga 14
3: Cabestany 34
4: Fujinami 43
5: Dabill 51

Junior
1: Richardson 20
2: Ferrer 25
3: Moret 27
4: Tarres 32
5: Dagnicourt 37

Youth 125cc
1: Karlsson 35
2: Tempier 35
3: Coquelin 39
4: Saleri 45
5: Cox 52

2011 FIM Riders Championship
Final Standings:
World
1: Bou 204
2: Raga 191
3: Fujinami 155
4: Cabestany 129
5: Fajardo 115

Junior
1: Gomez 144
2: Tarres 129
3: Moret 129
4: Dagnicourt 109
5: Ferrer 100

Youth 125cc
1: Sheppard 169
2: Tempier 157
3: Coquelin 127
4: Saleri 127
5: Martin J 92 2011 FIM Manufacturers Championship
Final Standings:
1: Montesa 359
2: Gas Gas 290
3: Beta 167
4: Sherco 153
5: Ossa 115