With two rounds down and five to go, the action in the 2025 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship moves east this coming weekend (16-18 May) for the TrialGP of Japan with Toni Bou (Montesa) and Berta Abellan (Scorpa) setting the pace in the premier TrialGP and TrialGP Women classes while Harry Hemingway (Beta) currently leads Trial2.
- Hertz FIM Trial World Championship continues with TrialGP of Japan
- TrialGP, TrialGP Women and Trial2 competitors in action at Mobility Resort Motegi
- Toni Bou, Berta Abellan and Harry Hemingway defend their series leads
The innovative new event format introduced this season that has seen each ‘lap’ rebranded as a ‘race’ has doubled riders’ points-scoring opportunities, while the reduced one-minute time limit in each section has resulted in an increased urgency. These changes, combined with a points-scoring Power Section at the close of each day’s competition for TrialGP and TrialGP Women competitors, have added even more excitement to the sport at its highest level and proved very popular with riders and fans.
With a deserved reputation as one of the series’ best venues, the iconic Mobility Resort Motegi – located around one-hundred-and-fifty kilometres north of Tokyo – first featured on the Hertz FIM Trial World Championship calendar in 2000 and has been a mainstay virtually ever since and this year its steep, rock-studded banks are expected to stretch riders in TrialGP, TrialGP Women and Trial2 to their limits.
With victory in seven of the eight races staged so far this year, thirty-eight-year-old Bou is well-positioned to claim an incredible nineteenth consecutive TrialGP title, but it is still very early days and his rivals – currently led by his fellow Spaniards Jaime Busto (GASGAS) and Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) – are queuing up to dethrone him.
Busto’s total of one-hundred-and-thirty-eight points leaves him twenty-two adrift of the lead and the twenty-seven-year-old from Górliz on the shores of the Bay of Biscay – the only other TrialGP rider to claim a race win this year – knows he needs to start reducing this deficit soon if he is to remain in contention when the series signs off in Great Britain in early September.
At the age of twenty-five, hard-riding Marcelli is the youngest of his team-mate’s challengers and the current vice-champion, although he is currently twenty-four points behind Busto and needs to be much more consistent if he is to keep the leading pair within striking distance.
A season-best second in the final race of day two last time out in Portugal, Italian veteran Matteo Grattarola (Beta) will be aiming to carry this momentum into Japan as he bids to close the six-point gap to Marcelli, but he must also defend his fourteen-point advantage over fifth-placed Aniol Gelabert (TRRS).
With reigning TrialGP Women champion Emma Bristow now retired from top-flight Trial there will be a new name inked into the record books at the end of the season and it is currently twenty-five-year-old Spanish star Abellan who is leading the title fight.
Runner-up to Bristow on five occasions, the rider from Barcelona has fought back well from a shaky start to the campaign when she finished the opening race on day one in Spain in fifth, but her advantage over Andrea Sofia Rabino (Beta) is just seven points following the Italian’s super-strong start to the season.
Rabino has been in impressive form and the eighteen-year-old has relentlessly pushed Abellan, claiming three wins, four seconds and a fourth in the eight races staged so far to keep the pressure firmly on her title rival.
Behind Rabino there is a thirty-nine-point gap to third-placed Denisa Pecháčková (TRRS) from the Czech Republic with the 2022 FIM Trial2 Women champion in turn just ten points clear of a three-way battle between France’s Naomi Monnier (Beta) and the British pairing of Alice Minta (Beta) and Kaytlyn Adshead (Sherco).
After claiming a career-first overall win in Trial2 on the final day in Portugal, Britain’s Harry Hemingway (Beta) holds a six-point advantage over his compatriot and 2023 champion Billy Green (Scorpa) before a seventeen-point gap to Spain’s Miquel Gelabert (Honda).
Gelabert has dropped down from TrialGP to give Honda’s new RTL Electric model its world championship debut and after finding his feet at the opening round in Spain in early April he staked his claim as a title contender one week later with two race wins in Portugal.
The points-scoring action in Japan is due to get under way at 09:00 (local time) on Saturday and Sunday.
Taking the 2025 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship to a global audience, FIM-MOTO.TV will stream all rounds LIVE including behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and expert analysis with a season pass covering all seven rounds and the FIM Trial des Nations priced at €34.90.
In addition, for all 2025 rounds the opening race in Trial2 on all scoring days will be streamed free on FIM-MOTO.TV and TrialGP and TrialGP Women action from race two on all scoring days will be available via a pay-per-view pass.
