2005 Indoor World Trial Championship Round 9
5/3/2005 - Stadium: Palalgida Stadium, Livorno Italy
Podium finish for Fuji, since round 4 in Granada
Coming back from Portugal to the base in Barcelona, the team Montesa
exercised an intensive testing of the engine with a new set up. It
was one of the biggest test sessions of the year with the HRC engineers
joined them from Japan. The new engine produced more horsepower, which
the riders had been asking for. At the moment, tests are mainly focused
onto the engine department, because their standard frames are showing
solid performances. It was another busy time before the competition
for Fuji, but he had time to ride the bike to be prepared with the
new setting for the round 9 in Livorno Italy.
Toni Bou and Dougie Lampkin started ahead of Fuji in the qualification
lap, but they didn't seem to perform so well. Fuji thought before his
ride that it would be difficult to survive for the final lap if he
dab more than 5 penalty points.
Fuji marked 3 consecutive cleans at the beginning of the lap; the
only rider who was able to do so. The big challenge of the lap was
the section 4, where only Raga and Cabestany managed to mark cleans
eventually. Fuji fived there, but he also suffered some damages to
the bike. Fuji went on to mark 2 more cleans at the section 5 and 6,
then he noticed that 5 to 6 spokes were broken on his rear wheel. Having
no time to change the wheel during qualification, only the option he
had was switching to the spare bike. Unfortunately, the spare bike
the team brought in Italy was an out of the box standard bike. The
modified standard bikes, which Fuji and the rest of the team riders
rode in UK and Russia, were on the way to Argentina for the following
round. Fuji chose to stay on the 'works' engine equipped bike with
unstable and shaking rear wheel, for the rest of the lap, because he
figured it would be too difficult to compete with a pure standard bike.
The picture sh!
own on the page is taken at his final lap. Notice the color of the rear wheel
is not in Repsol orange, because the team changed it before the final lap.
Fuji dabbed 10 penalty points before the double-lane; twice the points
he aimed. However, the rest of the riders didn't perform so well either:
Fajardo's 19 points and Freixa's 15 points, so Fuji secured the position
for the final lap.
According to Fuji, the reverse direction for the final lap weren't
so difficult. Still, he seemed to be somehow out of the rhythm at the
lap, and he kept making mistakes to five at the first 3 sections. In
fact, all three competitors fived at the first two sections. Raga marked
clean at the section 3, and he managed to break away from the rest.
Fuji and Cabestani shared the same failure before the double-lane with
Fuji added another point for time penalty. Fuji beat both riders on
the DL, and he equalize the score with Cabestany.
Fuji and Cabestany were still equal in point as they went to the section
8. Fuji figured it was difficult to mark clean, so he planned to play
safe to foot to minimize his penalty. He knew Cabestany would do the
same to finish with the same point, so Fuji looked forward to the play-off
to beat Cabestany to take the second place. Fuji finished the section
with 1 point as he planned, but he received another point for time
penalty. That was the end of it. Cabestany watched his rival taking
2 penalty points, so he carefully rode the section with a single point
to secure the second place.
Fuji missed the 2nd place with a small margin, but he was glad to
be up on the podium in front of HRC staff who came a long way from
Japan. It was Fuji's way to appreciate all the effort his staff putting
into. Fuji hasn't shown the performance he deserves yet, but anticipation
for the coming Outdoor season becomes bigger and bigger as the season
goes on.
The podium finish in Italy put Fuji 3 points closer to Lampkin for
the 3rd place, and 2 points away from Fajardo, who once stood at the
same position with Fuji in point.
The round 10 will be held in Argentina on March 12th.
Quote from Fujigas:
Indoor Trial World Championship 2005
Round 9 |
Final Lap |
1. |
Adam Raga |
Gas Gas |
21 |
2. |
Albert Cabestany |
Sherco |
27 |
3. |
Takahisa Fujinami |
Repsol Montesa-HRC |
28 |
Qualificarion Lap |
1. |
Adam Raga |
Gas Gas |
6 |
2. |
Albert Cabestany |
Sherco |
9 |
3. |
Takahisa Fujinami |
Repsol Montesa-HRC |
11 |
4. |
Marc Freixa |
Repsol Montesa-HRC |
15 |
5. |
Jeroni Fajardo |
Gas Gas |
19 |
6. |
Toni Bou |
Beta |
20 |
7. |
Dougie Lampkin |
Repsol Montesa-HRC |
21 |
8. |
Michele Orizio |
Scorpa |
33 |
Point Standings |
1. |
Adam Raga |
88 |
2. |
Albert Cabestany |
69 |
3. |
Dougie Lampkin |
45 |
4. |
Takahisa Fujinami |
42 |
5. |
Jeroni Fajardo |
40 |
6. |
Marc Freixa |
31 |
7. |
Toni Bou |
14 |
8. |
Tadeusz Blazusiak |
8 |
9. |
Jerome Bethune |
5 |
10. |
Michele Orizio |
1 |
11. |
Fumitaka Nozaki |
1 |
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