Cycle News Staff | September 25, 2024
The Trial of Nations was held in Pobladura de las Regueras, Spain, September 22. Repsol Honda riders Toni Bou and Gabriel Marcelli, together with Sherco rider Adam Raga, formed the Spanish team this year, and they were the winners of the event, beating Italy and France on the podium. It was the 20th consecutive year that Team Spain came away with the Championship. Spain has 30 titles in all.
Team Spain won the Trial of Nations for the 20th consecutive time.
After an unbeatable performance in the 15 zones that made up the course, the Spanish trio had little trouble coming away with the overall victory. In trials, where the lowest score wins, Team Spain tallied 42 points to the next-best team of Italy with 86 points. Team France completed the podium another 20 points back.
The team from Great Britain looked to have fourth in the bag but was disqualified for exceeding the event time limit. This moved Team Norway up a spot.
“I am very happy with this new victory in the Trial of Nations. This year we had a great team with my teammates Gabri and Adam,” Bou said. “It’s always special to compete at home and we enjoyed the day. Also, it was Adam’s last race before his retirement, so this was a pleasure to share this victory with him.”
Toni Bou led Team Spain to victory.
It was also a great weekend for the Repsol Honda Team Manager Takahisa Fujinami. He led the Japanese team—with riders Tsuyoshi Ogawa, Shinya Hirohata and Jin Kuroyama—who took home the International Trophy Class honor.
Team USA fielded a team in the International category. Josh Roper (GasGas), Alex Myers (Scorpa) and Alex Niederer (Beta) challenged the winning Japanese team the whole way and finished just three points behind for second overall. They also had to keep an eye on Germany that was always threatening, as well. At the end, just one point separated Team USA from Team Germany. Austria and Andorra completed the top five teams.
Great Britain topped the Women’s class, with Italy taking second place just one point ahead of Spain. Team USA finished sixth.CN
Adam Raga (center) finished out his career as a member of the winning Trial of Nations team.
FINAL CLASSIFICATION (Top 3)
- Spain (Toni Bou, Gabriel Marcelli, Adam Raga)
- Italy (Matteo Grattarola, Luca Petrella, Lorenzo Gandola)
- France (Benoit Bincaz, Hugo Dufrese, Gael Chatagno)
