Italy’s Matteo Grattarola – Gas Gas is set to make a welcome return to the FIM X-Trial World Championship in Milan tonight as one of two home wild card entrants. The twenty-six year old from Bellano, Italy who finished sixth in last year’s indoor series failed to automatically qualify for the current campaign, and thus this evening will be his lone outing in the 2014 championship.
Matteo spoke after the earlier briefing with all the riders and said. “Obviously I am happy to be here, and to have the chance to compete in front of my home fans, it is a big honour.”
He continued. “ I am in good shape, my physical training has been going well and I have been training good on the bike in Spain, but I know it is going to be tough tonight. It is difficult only to ride one round and to have a good level of confidence on these type of sections, but I will do my best and if I make it through to the semi-final that will be perfect for me.”
Grattarola will go up against Jeroni Fajardo – Beta in qualification. The other initial pairings for tonight’s penultimate event are as follows: Loris Gubian – Ossa vs James Dabill – Beta, Takahisa Fujinami – Repsol Montesa vs Adam Raga – Gas Gas, Matteo Poli – Ossa vs Albert Cabestany – Sherco and Jorge Casales – Gas vs Toni Bou – Repsol Montesa.