2005 World Trial Championship Round 6

25-26/6/2005 Pole Mecanique Ales Cevennes, France

2 days of out of shape in France

Fujinami came to France with his determination high after giving away the top spot in the championship in Andorra. The motor sport facility was the venue for the French round as the first WTC event ever held at the site. Majority of the sections were man made with rocks brought into the site making indoor style hazards to meet the level of world championship competition.

Saturday, June 25th

Fuji started the day well on Saturday. He was the only rider to score all-cleans at the first 6 sections. Raga followed with one point down, but Fuji looked to be very strong at the point.

The sections 7 to 9 were natural hazards in woods, and Fuji dabbed first error at the section 7. It wasn't a big problem it seemed at first, but it was the beginning of bucket full of penalty points for him.

When the day's competition was over, Fuji finished 5th- the worst position so far in the season, with 15 points away from the day's winner Raga. Meanwhile, Fuji's teammate Lampkin struggled even more to finish 12th after crashing hard at the section 3 of the lap 2. It was sort of a relief for Fuji that one of the strongest opponents in the championship dropped down, but having Raga and Cabestany finished better than him, Fuji knew he needed to turn it over the weekend was up.

Sunday, June 26th

It was the day to wipe out the bad results of the previous day for Fuji, but he wasn't quite in top form either on Sunday. Still, he rode well, and he completed the lap 1 with 15 points to be 3rd following Raga and Cabestany.

Fuji went on to the lap 2, and the nightmare started to strike him. He fived at the section 1, where no top rider except Fuji scored more than 1 point on Sunday. He fived again at the section 2 when he missed the line and couldn't climb the obstacles. As he failed, he hit the chains against the rock and broke the crankcase on the magneto side too. He was lucky that the accident happened at the early stage of the lap, and he had enough time left as he fought quickly on the lap 1.

Fuji rushed back to the pit to get his bike fixed. As he watched his team crews desperately working on the damage, it inspired Fuji to start over again for the rest of the day. Fuji's effort paid off and he did well until the middle of the lap, but he started to get out of shape at the end of the lap. He was in a battle for 6th at the end of the lap, but he lost the battle to finish 8th when he fived at the final section.

Two days of competitions were over, and the championship battle became suddenly tough for Fuji, as he built up 20 points gap against the championship leader Raga.

Quote from Fujigas:

I am so disgusted with myself. I had different problems on Saturday and on Sunday, but it doesn't seem to matter because I had same bad results. On Sunday, I felt exactly the same as I felt at UK round in 1998. I never figured out what was going wrong, and the day was over before finding any clue. My team was perfect on Sunday, so it was solely my fault to finish so bad. I think I need to sit and review all the seasons I fought since 1996. It was shame that I finished lower than Lampkin, who was injured after the big crash. I will try to sort the things out before the next round in Italy to come back to show why I am the world champion.

World Championship 2005
Pole Mecanique Ales Cevennes, France
Saturday
  Rider Make L1 L2 TO Pts CL
1 Adam Raga GasGas 13 20 0 33 16
2 Jeroni Fajardo GasGas 25 12 0 37 19
3 Albert Cabestany Sherco 29 12 0 41 37
4 Toni Bou Beta 22 19 0 41 16
5 Takahisa Fujinami Honda 19 29 0 48 16
6 Marc Freixa Montesa 30 19 0 49 16
7 Kenichi Kuroyama Beta 34 30 0 64 8
8 Graham Jarvis Sherco 44 40 0 84 5
9 Jordi Pascuet GasGas 44 40 0 84 5
10 Tadeusz Blazusiak GasGas 44 45 0 89 6
11 Fumitaka Nozaki Scorpa 51 42 0 93 7
12 Dougie Lampkin Montesa 36 63 0 99 7
13 Shaun Morris GasGas 48 65 0 113 3
14 Sam Connor Sherco 60 54 0 114 0
15 Christophe Bruand GasGas 59 58 0 117 1
L1: Lap1 L2: Lap2 TO: Time Over Pts: Penalty Point CL:Clean
Sunday
  Rider Make L1 L2 TO Pts CL
1 Adam Raga GasGas 7 15 0 22 20
2 Albert Cabestany Sherco 12 18 0 30 21
3 Jeroni Fajardo GasGas 25 8 0 33 19
4 Toni Bou Beta 23 14 0 37 17
5 Marc Freixa Montesa 25 17 0 42 15
6 Dougie Lampkin Montesa 23 26 0 49 15
7 Kenichi Kuroyama Beta 25 24 0 49 14
8 Takahisa Fujinami Honda 15 37 0 52 15
9 Graham Jarvis Sherco 34 23 0 57 9
10 Tadeusz Blazusiak GasGas 29 28 0 57 9
11 Fumitaka Nozaki Scorpa 27 44 0 71 11
12 Jordi Pascuet GasGas 45 39 0 84 5
13 Jerome Bethune GasGas 49 52 0 101 2
14 Marcel Justribo Montesa 49 53 0 102 4
15 Isao Shibuya Scorpa 60 45 0 105 4
L1: Lap1 L2: Lap2 TO: Time Over Pts: Penalty Point CL:Clean
Ranking
1 Adam Raga 149
2 Albert Cabestany 141
3 Takahisa Fujinami 128
4 Dougie Lampkin 125
5 Antonio Bou 103
6 Marc Freixa 101

Pix : Mario Candellone Official Results PDF- Saturday
Official Results PDF- Sunday
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