2011 X-Trial World Trial Championship Round6

Fila Forum, Milano, Italy - 19/3/2011

No Luck with Drawing - DNQ

The final round of 2011 X-Trial season took place in Milano, Italy. The number of the sections in the Qualification was cut back to five. One less section than the previous round, still hectic job for the riders competing five sections in six minutes.

Fujinami was out of luck with drawing again, even worse than he was in Madrid, to pick the first lot. That meant he would start second after the Italian wild-card, Matteo Grattarola. Like in Madrid, Fujinami could not gain much of the reference from the previous rider, as the Italian fived at the most of the sections, as well as taking plenty of time to ride dropping four over time penalty points. Fujinami could not get an idea of riding time either.

Fujinami started his Qualification with a clean. He went on safely until the end of the section2, but he fell down at the final area when he misaligned the front tire and hit the engine guard to fall down. He marked clean at the section3, but dropped another five at the section4. There was a wooden step at the end of the section with a very slippery run-up area due to the concrete surface with markings. The whole section was difficult and time consuming. If he knew the section being very tricky at the end, likely to five, he would cancel his ride at the beginning so he could save time. He would definitely avoid any time penalty with a full mark error.

Among the nine riders, only Bou rode the five sections within allotted time. Raga and Brown also did not drop any over-time penalty point, but they canceled early at some of the sections. Being the first rider, practically, Fujinami took time to ride all the sections, and he fived three out of five and dropped three time-penalty points in addition. When he finished with 18 points, he knew he had no chance for the Semi-Final.

The rest of the riders indeed did not make mistake by watching the examples of Grattarola and Fujinami. When the Qualification was over, Fujinami was eighth, six points behind Brown and Challoner. The duo went on to tie break, where Brown had the upper hand to proceed to the Semi-Final.

Dabil finished third in the Qualification, and then proceeded to the Final by finishing fourth in the Semi-Final in Milano. He has struggled all this season with his starting order as he had no luck with drawing. Once he picked the good lot, he was able to display his abilities to finish fourth in the Final. Currently, unless your are within the top four, the drawing has a huge influence on the outcome. X-Trial is still young. There are some stones left to be unturned.

Speaking of Toni Bou, who captured the title in Madrid, took the victory in Milano to complete the season with 120 points. It is almost the double score of Fajardo's, the runner up. Bou was invincible this season, winning all the six rounds. Simply a massive performance by the Spaniard.

Before the TV coverage got underway, all the riders lined up abreast to raise the national flag of Japan to send a message of condolence and sympathy to Japan.

Quote from Fujigas:

Although I ended my season with DNQ, I evaluate 2011 season better than 2010's. I remember I had too many DNQs in 2010. My results were almost equal, but I think I fought more steadily this season. This makes me more frustrated, actually, because I feel better with the way I fought but the results did not improve so much. There is no excuse about the result today even I had a bad lot, though. I am having a good feeling about my riding. I feel positive with the combination between my bike and myself toward the Outdoor season, too. I am looking forward to the season.

Pix: G2F Media / FIM

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