27/6/2004 |
World
Trial Championship Round 6 Sant Julia de Loria, Andorra |
World Trial Championship visited Andorra,
a small principality by the Pyrenees Mountains. Unlike usual 2day format,
1day competition took place, and the Spanish Championship was held
on Saturday instead. Most of the world championship contenders participated
in the Saturday event Knowing the section on Sunday would be very similar.
They did not want to miss the perfect opportunity to use the event
for their competitive practice.
Fujinami also participated in the Saturday
event and finished 8th. It may sound bad, but he had total of 62
penalty points with 37 time-penalty
points. Having missed the previous Spanish round, Fuji started 20
minutes earlier than his strong opponents. He looked the Saturday event
solely
for his preparation for Sunday, did not worry about time-penalty.
He was focused onto simulating Sunday event. Finishing 8th gave him
a
good idea for Sunday, and he was very much looking forward to it.
Sunday, June 20th
At the very beginning of the day Fuji fived
at the section 1. He had a little trouble at the section on both laps
on Saturday, barely scored two cleans there. He went faster that time
in order to ride with a good margin, but it worked negatively. A discouraging
way to start the day, but he wasn't dejected too much, tried to refresh
his mind and continued to attack the rest. But on section 3, observer
gave Fuji 1 point for his shoulder touched the wall of a rock momentary.
It seemed to be hard for him to catch his rhythm.
Sections in Andorra
look severe and difficult due to its rugged terrain. But because
the traction is good, it isn't too difficult as it appears
to be. Yet small mistake may lead to five-point failure, it became
a good mental battle for the competitors.
It was at the end of lap1
that Fuji finally started to get on his rhythm. He was provisional
6th up to the section6. He rode well and
managed
to keep the penalty points as low as two for the rest of the lap.
At
the end of the lap, Fuji had an advise from Mr. Cirera, the team
manager, that there was no time to relax, because it was a
close
battle. Although the advice did not give Fuji a lot of information;
what kind
of toughness or whom he was fighting against - Fuji admitted
later that it helped him to re-concentrate for the lap2.
Fuji marked
clean at the first 4 sections of lap2. At the section 5, one of the
toughest challenges, Fuji added 1. Many failed
at the ending
half of the section. Fuji had a slight mistake at the beginning,
ok at the ending half; it was close for him to score clean.
Over-night modification took place on section 6, where Fuji scored
5 and
clean on Saturday. He tried the new line but it didn't work
well and
fived. Raga and Lampkin scored clean at section 6 on both laps.
Together
with
Pascuet, they were the only three riders who succeed to mark
clean at the section.
From section 7 Fuji showed flawless
ride and marked 10 consecutive clean to finish the lap. At section
13, Mr. Cirera came to Fuji again for his advise. "Raga is too
strong so it is not possible to win. But 2nd is almost certain, because
the next guy is very much far down". Fuji misunderstood by the
advise that Lampkin was 3rd, and he kept scoring clean to protect his
2nd from the rival. When the lap was over he found out he was wrong.
Lampkin had scored 5 more five than Fuji and finished at surprising
7th place.
Two laps were over and Raga won the round.
It allowed him to move up the championship position into 2nd, 14 points
down from
Fuji. Lampkin
on the other hand dropped his position into 3rd; widen his gap from
Fuji as 19 points.
Fuji still stands on top at the championship
battle. Now the closest competition has changed from Lampkin to Raga,
but there
is no difference
who is on the second if it's Raga or Lampkin. They are both strong
competitors. Fuji will continue to fight for the victory and try
to be up on a podium when winning is not possible for the rest
of the
season.
Quote from Fujigas:
Finishing 2nd at this round means a lot for the championship battle,
almost as good as winning. It was lucky for me that Lampkin finished
7th allowing me to build more gap too. However, he is a dangerous
rider and I should not underestimate him. Still speaking from
my own experience, it would be very tough having 19 points disadvantage
at the 5th round of the season. But I don't need to practice
such calculations. I believe the championship will come along
if I continue to fight the right way, like I have been able to
do so far this season.
2004
World Trial Championship
Round 6 Sant Julia de Loria, Andorra |
Sunday |
1. |
Adam Raga |
10 (3+7) 21 |
2. |
Takahisa Fujinami |
17 (11+6) 22 |
3. |
Albert Cabestany |
31 (17+14) 21 |
4. |
Kenichi Kuroyama |
34 (14+20) 15 |
5. |
Marc Freixa |
35 (19+16) 15 |
6. |
Jeroni Fajardo |
39 (22+17) 14 |
7. |
Dougie Lampkin |
44 (22+22) 16 |
Ranking (5 more rounds to go) |
1. |
Takahisa Fujinami |
193 |
2. |
Adam Raga |
179 |
3. |
Dougie Lampkin |
174 |
4. |
Albert Cabestany |
141 |
5. |
Marc Freixa |
123 |
6. |
Jeroni Fajardo |
111 |
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