On The Pegs January 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 1 | Page 119

On The Pegs
O
NS
Vol. 3 Issue 1 - January 2018
P 119
The 2018 X-Trial series
is off and running - even
though the first round was held in December of 2017
- and Toni Bou began the defense of his eleventh in-
door title with style, easily winning the series opener
in Vendee, France.
New promoter 2Play has installed a new format
for X-Trials for the new season, which features three
phases to determine the competition’s eventual win-
ner.
The first phase – an initial qualifying round – will be
fought out in among the nine participating riders in
groups of three. The top six go on to the next round
– a semi-final – where only the best of each of the
two groups will go through to compete in the final.
Bou excelled in all phases.
In the first qualifying round, Bou laid
down the gauntlet, collecting just
a single penalty point in the six-
section course, as the eleven-time
champion sauntered through the
relatively easy sections. The second
phase of the competition saw Bou
included in a group with James Dabill
and Benoît Bincaz, with only the top-
finisher going through to the final. Bou
replicated the near perfect first lap to
comfortably seal a place in the final.
In the meantime, last year’s runner-up
to the series, Adam Raga, suffered a nasty
crash in in the final section of qualifying which
ultimately kept him out of the two-man final.