The fifth round of the 2025 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship – the TrialGP of San Marino – takes place this coming weekend (6-8 June) at Baldasserona where Toni Bou (Montesa) will start the event with a commanding fifty-five-point lead in the elite TrialGP class, while in Trial2 Harry Hemingway (Beta) leads by twenty points and in Trial3 Ryon Land (Sherco) has a twenty-eight-point advantage.
- Defending champion Toni Bou holds pole position in TrialGP class
- Miquel Gelabert aims to close in on Harry Hemingway in Trial2
- American teenager Ryon Land leads Trial3 championship chase
Returning to the land-locked microstate for the first time since 2023, the best Trial riders on the planet can expect lots of imposing rock steps – in their natural setting and also strategically placed by section designers – to test their skills to the limit.
Over the course of his career Bou has constantly rewritten the record books and following his incredibly strong start to the season the thirty-eight-year-old Spaniard knows that another dominant performance could put him in pole position to sew-up an unparalleled nineteenth consecutive crown when the series heads to the USA for round six in July.
Bou’s main opposition should come from his twenty-seven-year-old compatriot Jaime Busto (GASGAS) whose consistency has seen him take top-three finishes in all but one of the sixteen races held so far, although his one solitary win – in the final race of day two at the opening round in Spain – is testament to Bou’s dominance this season.
Last season’s vice-champion, Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) continues to excite fans with his forceful, all-action riding style. However, after getting the season under way with two second-placed race finishes behind his team-mate on the opening day of the championship the twenty-five-year-old Spaniard has struggled to replicate this form, meaning he trails Busto by thirty-seven points and is only twenty-one clear of Matteo Grattarola (Beta) in fourth.
The thirty-seven-year-old Italian claimed three race podiums last time out in France to reel in Marcelli in the battle for the bronze medal and the fight for fifth is even closer with Spain’s Aniol Gelabert (TRRS) – who is thirty-two points adrift of Grattarola – leading class newcomer Jack Peace (Sherco) from Great Britain by just seven.
At the start of the year Peace, the 2024 Trial2 champion, set himself an ambitious goal of achieving a top-five ranking and he has improved as the season has progressed with his impressive run of results topped by a career-best second in the first race on the opening day in France.
Always closely-contested and hard-fought, Trial2 is developing into a two-rider fight between up-and-coming nineteen-year-old Harry Hemingway (Beta) from Great Britain and twenty-seven-year-old Spaniard Miquel Gelabert (Honda).
Both riders posted their worst finishes of the season in the opening race of the TrialGP of Spain and while Hemingway recovered more quickly, Gelabert – who this season has dropped down from TrialGP to debut Honda’s all-new RTL Electric machine – has put together a run of impressive recent results, culminating in three race wins at the TrialGP of France.
The 2023 champion, Britain’s Billy Green (Scorpa) got his campaign off to a double win on day one in Spain, but just one additional race victory has followed. The twenty-three-year-old’s hopes of regaining the crown then suffered a serious blow when he failed to finish the second race on day two in France, dropping him seventeen points behind Gelabert.
Despite this setback, Green remains comfortably clear of the contest for fourth between France’s Benoit Bincaz (EM) – who has also dropped down from TrialGP this season to ride an electric machine – and Spain’s Arnau Farré (Sherco).
Contesting the Trial3 class, the championship’s youngest riders have competed in Spain, Portugal and France so far this season with series newcomer Land establishing a clear advantage at the top of the table.
The American teenager has been a revelation this season and following a slightly nervous start in Spain he has seized control through a mix of talent and consistency with six wins from the last eight races – including a perfect clean lap last time out in France – allowing him to pull clear of the chasing pack led by Norwegian rider Jonas Jorgensen (Beta), Britain’s Harison Skelton (Scorpa) and Jin Kuroyama (Sherco) from Japan.
The points-scoring action from Baldasserona is scheduled to get under way at 09:00 (local time) on Saturday (7 June) and Sunday (8 June).
