With less than a week to let the dust – and mud – settle following the second round of the 2024 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship, the series resumes this coming weekend (14-16 June) with the TrialGP of Italy at Valsassina in the north of the country near the famous shores of Lake Como.
- 2024 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship travels to Valsassina for round three
- Toni Bou and George Hemingway aim to extend win-streaks at TrialGP of Italy
- Too close to call in Trial2 after four winners from four days of points-paying competition
A brand-new venue on the championship calendar, Valsassina will provide a fresh test for the best riders on the planet with competitors in the TrialGP, Trial2 and Trial3 classes all in action for the second consecutive weekend following the TrialGP of Andorra.
Bidding to win an unparalleled eighteenth consecutive TrialGP title, Spanish star Toni Bou (Montesa) starts favourite to extend his 2024 win-streak following his victories on the opening four scoring days of the series, although he has not won seventeen crowns in a row by resting on his laurels and you can guarantee that he will not be underestimating his opposition.
Currently leading the chasing pack, Bou’s twenty-four-year-old compatriot and team-mate Gabriel Marcelli is enjoying the best start to his season in the elite class since he moved up following his 2019 Trial2 title, although he had to come from behind on both days in Andorra with two stellar second laps in the Pyrenees maintaining his one-hundred per cent podium record this year. Still searching for that elusive first victory in TrialGP, could it finally come in Valsassina?
A pair of podiums in Japan were a great start to the season for class veteran Adam Raga (Sherco), indicating that his change of teams in the off-season had rejuvenated the forty-two-year-old two-time world champion. Despite flashes of brilliance, he went slightly off the boil last weekend and now has fellow Spaniard Jaime Busto (GASGAS) threatening his current third position in the points table.
Fuel problems dropped Busto out of contention in Japan, but the twenty-six-year-old vice-champion looked much stronger in Andorra where his second-placed finish on day two was a better indication of his prodigious talent and he will be determined to repeat the form that carried him to three wins at the start of last season.
Very much the local hero this weekend, Matteo Grattarola’s hometown of Bellano is less than twenty kilometres from Valsassina and the thirty-six-year-old will be hoping the passionate Italian fans can inspire him to improve on his current fifth in the standings and resist the challenge from, among other riders, Spain’s Aniol Gelabert (TRRS) and his older brother Miquel Gelabert (Vertigo).
A career-first victory last time out in Andorra has elevated Alex Canales (Sherco) to the top of the Trial2 table and in a class where consistency among the front runners has at times been lacking, the nineteen-year-old from Spain – who has missed the podium just one in 2024 – will be aiming to take control.
With four day winners from the two rounds staged so far, competition in Trial2 will be intense with Britain’s Jack Peace (Sherco), Spain’s Arnau Farre (Sherco) and Sondre Haga (GASGAS) from Norway – who have all claimed a victory in 2024 – and defending champion Billy Green (Scorpa) from Britain looking to prevent Canales from extending his lead at what is still an early stage of the championship.
The competition to decide the Trial3 crown got under way in Andorra where reigning champion George Hemingway (Beta) started the defence of his title with two commanding wins and he surely starts as favourite to add to his total of victories this weekend.
However, the sixteen-year-old cannot afford to be complacent with strong challenges expected from his fellow British rider and series newcomer Euan Sim (Sherco) – who recorded three-two finishes in Andorra – and France’s Romeo Piquet (Beta).
The points-scoring action at Valsassina gets under way at 09:00 local time on 15 June and will be streamed LIVE on FIM-MOTO-TV from 13:00 local time with a season pass – covering all seven rounds and the FIM Trial des Nations – priced at €34.90.
