2007 Trial World Championship Round 7

M.C. Canzo, Erba Italy 1/7/2007 - Attendance:12,000

Lap1 Costed a Big Time

Round seven of ITWC took place at Erba; the city at the foot of the Alps, 40km north of Milan. It was the mountain trial with the paddock at 300m above the sea level, and the section 13 - the highest part - was about 900m to 1,000m.

Although Fujinami scored the record lap with ten points at Lap2, he could not recover the damage at the previous lap to finish third behind two regular podium finishers. Fuji believes that he had strong chances to finish at least ten points better at Lap1. He normally does not want to talk about 'ifs and buts', but, he seemed very frustrated with the result at the Lap1, and commented some of his regrettable moments.

Chance No.1 was the section nine. It was a very tough challenge where Lampkin dropped five and Dabill rode with three points. Cabestany made a dramatic crash at the section three, so all the riders behind him had to wait until the situation got under control. They were well behind the schedule when arriving at the section. The Spaniard continued riding although first thought to suffer a severe injury, and showed an amazing ride instead of climbing the rock but bypassing at the side to show a nice clean. Fuji had the intercom system he used first time at the Japanese round, and he heard Josep asking if Fuji wanted to try the new line that the Spaniard just displayed. Fuji didn't see the riding, but he understood the line was very easy without big obstacles, but simply confusing with numbers of gate-makers. Fuji proceeded to the end of the section without dropping any point. Confusing it was, and there were three kinds of markers, red for world championship,
blue for junior class, and green for youth class sticking out at small area. Fuji kept going with a constant guidance from Josep on the radio. At the end, Fuji heard Josep shouting on the radio. Fuji knew a minute and a half period was about to be over, so he thought the minder was trying to notice about the time. Fuji finished the section thinking he did a good job, only to hear five from the observer. Josep was trying to tell the rider to swing to the left. Fuji missed one of the red gate-makers.

Chance No.2 was the section 14. It was an indoor style section with some square concrete blocks with a triple steps at the beginning. Fuji decided to hook the engine under-guard at the edge of the concrete before jumping off the block. But, as soon as he hooked the part, the observer called five for penalizing going backwards. It was such a relentless call, and Fuji asked the basis for the decision. The FIM officer nearby the scene also had a question mark about the call. The observer said it was a clear five, and didn't change his call. Fuji protested about the call after the event, but it wasn't granted either, and the result became official.

Chance No.3 was the section six. It was a very dangerous section for falling down, so the organizer put helpers to give additional hands for the minders. The riders rode before Fuji all fived, and Fuji's riding wasn't very strong either. He put the front wheel at the top of the rock and started to push the bike to clear the rock. Though Fuji was still competing, the helpers sensed the danger a little bit too early. Fuji insisted not to touch his bike to them, but it was too late; the helpers grabbed the front forks. Fuji was positive to finish with two marks there, but dropping five points instead.

Bad luck or what? Yet, Fuji tried to concentrated for the second lap. He managed to show his own riding at the lap, without any major mistakes. He was the only rider to complete the lap without five point error either. Fuji finished the lap with ten points, but 34 points at the Lap1 hurt him a lot. He finished the day at the third spot, just three points behind Raga, who finished second.

Quote from Fujigas:

I had a very good ride at the Lap2, which made me frustrated more about the result at the first lap. If I had a little bit more luck with me, I was there in front of Raga, or even fought for the victory against Bou. I don't want to sound weak with all those ifs and buts, but today, I guess was out of luck completely.

pix: Mario Candellone and Agnese Andrione

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