The sixth and penultimate round of the 2025 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship – the TrialGP of USA – takes place this coming weekend (11-13 July) at Exeter, Rhode Island, where defending champion Toni Bou (Montesa) will start with a mathematical chance of clinching an unparallelled nineteenth consecutive title in the premier TrialGP class.
- Hertz FIM Trial World Championship returns to the USA after eight-year absence
- Can Toni Bou clinch his nineteenth consecutive title this weekend?
- Berta Abellan and Harry Hemingway defend TrialGP Women and Trial2 series leads
In the TrialGP Women class, Berta Abellan (Scorpa) heads to LeGrand Reynolds Horseman’s Area holding an eighteen-point advantage while in Trial2 Harry Hemingway (Beta) will defend his slender five-point lead, but as the series returns to the USA for the first time in eight years the global focus will undoubtedly be centred around the thirty-eight-year-old Spanish superstar.
Bou’s form has been every bit as impressive this year as it has for the previous eighteen seasons, ever since he claimed his first crown in 2007. With new rules introduced this season awarding points after every race, effectively doubling scoring opportunities, Bou has been defeated just twice – on day two in Spain and again in San Marino – to open-up a seventy-point advantage.
With a maximum of eighty-two points available at each round once the extra point up for grabs in the new Power Section at the end of each day is taken into account, Bou could leave the USA as a nineteen-time TrialGP champion, although that will largely depend on the form of second-placed Jaime Busto (GASGAS).
His twenty-seven-year-old compatriot is firmly on course to regain his second-placed ranking, but after defeating Bou in the final race on day two at the opening round in Spain he has failed to replicate this result, despite only finishing off a race podium on one occasion.
Bou’s only other race loss came at the most recent round in San Marino at the hands of his team-mate Gabriel Marcelli and while this represents a career-best finish for the powerful twenty-five-year-old Spaniard, he will be disappointed to be sitting third in the standings, twenty-eight points behind Busto.
While the 2025 medals are almost certainly going to go to the riders currently in the top three positions, fourth-placed Matteo Grattarola (Beta) must be considered a podium threat this weekend and you can’t discount Aniol Gelabert (TRRS) or class newcomer Jack Peace (Sherco).
After taking a break following the TrialGP of Japan, competitors in the premier TrialGP Women class return to action this weekend when Abellan will renew her season-long battle with Italy’s Andrea Sofia Rabino (Beta).
Since slipping to fifth in the opening race on day one in Spain, Abellan has dug deep to overtake her rival although, after the pair traded race wins on both days at round two in Portugal, she had to wait until Japan before she could establish a solid championship lead.
With just this weekend’s event and the final round – the TrialGP of Great Britain – left on the calendar, the fight for third is heating up with the British pairing of Kaytlyn Adshead (Sherco) and Alice Minta (Beta) separated by just ten points while Italian Alessia Bacchetta (GASGAS) and Denisa Pechackova (TRRS) from the Czech Republic are also in contention.
Although currently eighth in the standings, expect American fan favourite Maddie Hoover (GASGAS) to rise to the occasion at her first home round since 2017.
Trial2 is always close and competitive and this season has been no different. Early leader and 2023 champion Billy Green (Scorpa) from Britain has dropped off the pace, leaving his compatriot Harry Hemingway (Beta) and Spain’s Miquel Gelabert (Honda) to fight it out at the top of the table.
Hemingway has led since round two in Portugal, but Gelabert – who dropped down from the TrialGP class this season to ride Honda’s all-new RTL Electric model – has mounted a strong challenge over recent rounds and after a disappointing start in Spain is now threatening the British teenager’s lead.
While Green is thirty-nine points behind Gelabert and unlikely to close the gap with just two rounds remaining, the twenty-three-year-old is forty-one points clear of fourth-placed French rider Benoit Bincaz (EM) and looking good to match his 2024 finish of third.
The points-scoring action from LeGrand Reynolds Horseman’s Area is scheduled to get under way at 10:00 (local time) on Saturday (12 July) and Sunday (13 July).
