Cycle News Staff | September 12, 2023
Spain swept to a 19th consecutive men’s victory at the 2023 FIM Trial des Nations (TdN), staged this year high up in the French Alps at the ski resort of Auron, September 9-10.
Team Spain, made up of Jaime Busto (2), Toni Bou (1) and Gabriel Marcelli (3), won the Trial des Nations for the 19th consecutive time.
But their hopes of doubling up in the women’s category were thwarted due to a polished performance by the British ladies, who regained the title they last won in 2018. The Japanese team claimed a popular win in the FIM International Trophy, and Norway came out on top in the FIM Challenge des Nations for two-rider, male/female teams. Team USA fielded a team in the International category and just missed out on the podium.
With imposing rocks and steep, loose climbs challenging the field over two laps of 15 sections, the heat and altitude—Auron is 5500 feet above sea level—combined to test the skill and physical fitness of the best trials riders on the planet.
The Spanish men’s victory, now 29 in all, hardly came as a surprise. The dominant force since 2004 in the annual competition to decide the world’s leading trial nation, this year Spain fielded Toni Bou (Montesa), Jaime Busto (GasGas) and event newcomer Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa)—the top three riders in the premier TrialGP class of the 2023 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship—and the talented trio did not disappoint.
Bou helped lead Team Spain to a commanding win.
With a team’s best two scores in each section counting, Spain’s biggest test on the opening lap came on the huge rock steps of section nine, where they collected a 10-mark maximum, but every other nation also failed to reach the ends cards here, so it did not affect positions.
At the halfway mark, Spain led with a total of 12 from the host nation at 30 and Italy at 31 before a sizeable gap back to Great Britain and Norway.
On lap two, focus shifted to the battle between the French trio of Benoit Bincaz (Sherco), Hugo Dufrese (GasGas) and Teeo Colairo (Beta) and the Italian team of Matteo Grattarola (Beta), Luca Petrella (GasGas) and Gianluca Tournour (Sherco).
The two teams were incredibly evenly matched, and while Spain cruised to victory on a total of 23, France and Italy went head-to-head on the second lap, and with the final result still in doubt until the last section of the trial, the host nation’s score of 51 gave them second by two marks.
“To be honest, it is a super-good feeling,” said Marcelli. “It is my first TdN, but with such a good team, things are easy. I enjoyed the whole race from the beginning to the end, and I think we put in a pretty good performance.”
Great Britain was the last nation to defeat Spain in a TdN, but the team this year was never really in contention for a podium finish, and their score of 84 placed them fourth.
In the three-rider International competition, the U.S. team fought to get on the podium but missed out by four points. The team, made up of Josh Roper (GasGas) and Alex (Scorpa) and Wil Myers (Sherco), dropped 29 points to the third-place-finishing team of the Czech Republic, 29-25. Germany was second with seven points, and Japan took the win with just one point lost. Australia was fifth, seven points behind the Americans. CN
- Spain (23)
- France (51)
- Italy (53)
- Great Britain (84)
- Norway (92)
