The best Trial riders on the planet are putting the final touches to their pre-season preparations in readiness for the opening round of the 2023 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship which fires into action on 14-16 April.
- All systems go for the best Trial riders on the planet
- Season comprises seven rounds and fourteen points-scoring days
- Super-intense series provides the ultimate test
With seven rounds and fourteen points-paying days of action scheduled this year – an increase of one round and four scoring days over 2022 – competitors face a super-intense season that will test minds, muscles and machinery.
The blue ribbon TrialGP category along with Trial2 will compete at all seven rounds with the TrialGP Women, Trial2 Women and Trial3 classes joining the series at selected events.
The opening round takes place at Arteixo on the north-western tip of Spain which is the first of two new venues competitors will face this year. TrialGP Women and Trial3 riders will get their seasons under way here.
Just one week later on 21-23 April the focus switches to the big, grippy boulders of Gouveia on the edge of Portugal’s scenic Serra da Estrela Natural Park where TrialGP Women and Trial3 will once again feature.
Following a pandemic-enforced absence of three years, the Hertz FIM Trial World Championship makes a long-awaited and very welcome return to Japan’s legendary Mobility Resort Motegi on 19-21 May.
Prior to Covid, Japan had enjoyed an unbroken twenty-year run on the calendar so there is a strong sense of anticipation surrounding the event.
TrialGP Women competitors will also make the eleven-thousand-kilometre journey to the Land of the Rising Sun where they can expect huge granite rocks set into a steep, wooded hillside.
Following a three-week break, the action resumes on 9-11 June at Baldasserrona in San Marino as the series makes its first visit to the republic since 2010. Trial3 riders will continue their championship chase in the land-locked microstate.
Round five on 16-18 June sees the series returns to more familiar surroundings at Sant Julià de Lòria in Andorra where the Trial2 Women riders will kick off their campaign and Trial3 will also feature.
Notorious for its towering rocks and super-steep climbs, the Pyrenean principality has been the venue for eight Hertz FIM Trial World Championship rounds since 2013.
Round six on 21-23 July will give fans the opportunity to see all five classes in action when the series makes its first visit to Sestriere in Italy since 2003.
Competing high in the Italian Alps at the famous ski resort, the altitude will call for supreme fitness as the series nears its conclusion.
After the traditional summer break, there’s another full-house of classes at the seventh and deciding round at the new venue of Vertolaye in France on 1-3 September where more big boulders and wooded hillsides await competitors.
The season will sign off the following weekend at Auron in France on September 8-10 with the FIM Trial Vintage Trophy and Trial Des Nations.
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