Repsol Honda Team open the 2017 X-Trial World Championship in Barcelona

The 2017 FIM X-Trial World Championship season officially gets underway this
weekend in Barcelona. Repsol Honda Team will line up Toni Bou, Takahisa Fujinami
and Jaime Busto for the Trial Indoor opener in the Catalan capital on Sunday 5th
February for the 40th edition of the event.

The X-Trial season kicks off with the Barcelona Indoor Trial which over the years has
become something of a ‘classic’ in the trial world. Toni Bou arrives eager to defend
his reign of ten world titles. Repsol Honda Team’s incumbent X-Trial champion will
start as favourite in a four-trial championship where riders will have to battle hard
from the get-go and errors could prove costly. Toni will be looking to dominate from
the start after having let last season’s opening date in the U.K. slip through his
fingers. Earlier in 2017, Bou again took part in the indoor event in Sheffield, U.K.
clinching victory on the day, although points do not officially count towards the World
Championship.

Toni Bou won’t be alone in Barcelona. The ten-time victor – with the last eight wins
on the trot – will appear alongside Repsol Honda Team stalwart Takahisa Fujinami
and the promising Jaime Busto. The Japanese rider - who ranked third in the world in
the 2016 outdoor discipline and fifth indoors - has yet to shine in the indoor discipline
as he has done in the open air. Expect ‘Fujigas’ - one of the most popular riders on
the circuit - to have the crowd firmly behind him as always.

Young Basque rider Jaime Busto returns to the Palau Sant Jordi intent on honing his
indoor technique. The pressure to produce higher-level results has led to below-par
performances on his two previous participations in Barcelona Indoor. This year the
Spanish hopeful is on a mission to break the bad spell.

Fans from around the globe will converge on the Barcelona event for a feast of thrilling
competition and technique. In time-honoured fashion, the trial begins at 17:00 hrs on Sunday
with six sections to test the eight rider’s skill to the limit.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Barcelona Trial Indoor is the blue riband race in the discipline. The event has been
disputed forty years consecutively.

The first Barcelona Trial Indoor took place on a Thursday in the old Palacio de
Deportes in Barcelona with free access to those in possession of the SoloMoto
magazine which organized the event.

Jaume Subirà, on a Montesa Cota 348, was the winner of the first trial which has
since had 11 different winners.

The first four-stroke bike to triumph in Barcelona was the Honda RTL of Belgian Eddy
Lejeune, also the first rider to clinch a hat-trick of victories.
Toni Bou is the rider with the most victories in Palau Sant Jordi: 10, with a recent
consecutive run of eight wins out of the last eight disputed.

Takahisa Fujinami has finished on the podium four times in Barcelona. Jaime Busto
has taken part in the two most recent events as the organisation’s wildcard entry.

2017 X-Trial Calendar

DATE STADIUM COUNTRY
February 5 Barcelona Spain
March 11 Wiener Neustadt Austria
March 25 Marseille France
March 31 Nice France

TONI BOU
How have you prepared for the competition?
We have prepared the season with great care: working hard at physical fitness and
preparing the bike. You have to keep motivated and be at 100% to take the title.
After having won ten titles, what is your objective for the 2017 X-Trial season?
The challenge is really complicated, above all after a great all-round year like the last
one, but we want to achieve the victory again.
Give us an analysis of each of the four trials in the calendar.
It’s a four-trial championship where you won’t be able to make any mistakes. It will be
tough, but we have worked hard in the preseason and we are at 100% to be able to
pull it off. The trial in Barcelona will be a great way to start the championship. In
addition, it will be the fortieth anniversary and there will be more sections. Let’s see
what we find, as there are always surprises; but it is a worthy race to start the
championship with. After, we are off to Vienna which will be the most difficult and the
one that I like the most: it will be really important to get that one right. The Marseille
trial is a fairly easy date, but recently they have included some more technical
sections. The Pavilion in Nice is smaller and it will be complicated if the
championship is decided there.

TAKAHISA FUJINAMI
You are the most veteran of all the riders yet you are still competitive. How far can
Fujigas go?
I’m the most veteran in the paddock but I’ve still got the motivation and the results
are good. How far can I go? Everything depends on the results…. I don’t set the limit.
How have you prepared the X-Trial season?
X-Trial is important, but I have to recognise that my preseason training for indoor
hasn’t been so intense and perhaps I have focused more on outdoor. That way I
arrive at the championship with no pressure.
What is your aim for the indoor season?
After finishing third outdoor and having finished one of the indoor events in fourth
place, my aim for this year is to be on the podium in some of the season’s events.

JAIME BUSTO
This will be my third year as a wildcard rider in the Barcelona X-Trial. After the
previous experiences over the last two years, hopefully I will be able to say, ‘Third
time lucky’, and be able to finally have a good race. It will be complicated to get into
the final, but we are going to fight even though indoor is not really the speciality best-
suited to my riding style.

MIQUEL CIRERA:
We are about to start a new season and a new year. The riders have worked really
hard in the preseason. It is a short championship which where there won’t be room
for mistakes and that puts us all under pressure. That means everyone: riders and
team alike. We didn’t make it to some events such as Sheffield and we missed out on
that. As far as the riders go, Toni will try to clinch another title and Fujinami will do all
he can but he has no obligations. On the other hand Jaime Busto has to strengthen
as a rider in this speciality.