Defending champion Toni Bou (Montesa) claimed victories in both of today’s races plus the Power Section at the TrialGP of France – round four of the 2025 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship – on the island of Corsica, while Harry Hemingway (Beta) and Miquel Gelabert (Honda) took a win apiece in Trial2 and Ryon Land (Sherco) and Jonas Jorgensen (Beta) shared the honours in Trial3.
Staged around the beautiful coastal town of Calvi on the north-west tip of the Mediterranean islandwith eleven of the twelve sections plotted on the nearby mountainside, huge boulders provided a suitable test for the best riders on the planet and threatened to cause a surprise in the premier TrialGP class where sublime Spaniard Bou – who has displayed dominant form so far this season – stuttered as early as section three in the first of the day’s two points-scoring races.
The thirty-eight-year-old’s maximum on the series of massive under-cut steps on his first visit was matched by all his rivals apart from veteran Italian Matteo Grattarola (Beta) who needed just a single dab and Britain’s Jack Peace (Sherco) who made it through with the loss of two, leaving Bou in a four-way tie for third with his compatriots Jaime Busto (GASGAS), Pablo Suarez (Montesa) and Alex Canales (Montesa) as Grattarola led the field from Peace.
With his sights set on an unparalleled nineteenth consecutive title, Bou’s ability to keep a cool head is legendary and following his failure on section three he added just one more mark in the next six sections to move into a clear lead as his rivals all added at least one further maximum to their totals.
A maximum on section ten threw a late lifeline to his opponents, but Bou’s total of three marks in the final two sections increased his final score to fifteen to put the result beyond doubt with the drama then switching to the fight for the remaining podium positions.
Grattarola was looking good for his second runner-up race finish of the season, especially after he sailed through section ten for the loss of just a single mark, but a five on section eleven proved costly and he ended up third behind Peace who, in his debut season in TrialGP, produced a career-best performance to take second by a single point on a score of nineteen.
Spain’s Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) started the day third in the championship and although he ended the race in fourth on twenty-two marks, he still pulled back two vital points on Busto who had been in contention for the win until a run of three consecutive maximums in sections nine, ten and eleven pushed his score up to twenty-three.
Bou had another scare in the second race when he collected a five in section two that had been cut from the course for the opening race while a loose boulder was secured. With Busto, Marcelli, Gelabert and Grattarola all staying feet-up here and Peace collecting a single mark, the pressure on the record-breaking champion – magnified by scorching temperatures – was intense but, once again, Bou kept his cool.
Reeling off clean after clean, Bou chipped away at the scores of the riders ahead of him, but when he incurred a five on section nine his hopes of victory looked to have disappeared. However, race leader Busto also took a maximum here, as did Grattarola who was tied with Bou, so with three sections to go Busto still held a four-mark advantage.
Bou reduced the deficit to three when he took a single dab on section ten and it was his turn to be handed a lifeline when he cleaned section eleven and Busto and Grattarola both collected maximums before sealing his second victory of the day with a clean on the rocky coastal defences of section twelve and claiming the extra point up for grabs in the timed Power Section.
“I had a very good first race and the twenty points are very important for the championship,” said Bou. “I started the second lap with a big crash in section two, but I recovered well so I’m super-happy.”
Busto hung on for second on thirteen, two adrift of Bou, with Marcelli – whose clean on section eleven had dragged him back into podium contention – taking third on fourteen, three clear of Grattarola and ten ahead of fifth-placed Gelabert.
Carrying momentum from the opening race, Peace had started strongly before the unrelenting Mediterranean sun finally got to him and he began to suffer muscle cramps, losing twenty-four marks in the final six sections to end the race in sixth on twenty-nine.
Hemingway held the Trial2 points lead at the start of the day and he extended it with a narrow one-mark victory in the opening race ahead of Spain’s Arnau Farré (Sherco) with home hero Benoit Bincaz (EM) taking a very popular third a further three marks behind on nine.
The nineteen-year-old British rider’s championship ambitions were boosted further when his compatriotBilly Green (Scorpa) and Spain’s Gelabert – who began the day in second and third in the standings– came home fourth and fifth, but his hopes of doubling up on day one were thwarted in race two when a maximum on section three put him on the back foot.
Competing on Honda’s all-new RTL Electric, Gelabert seized the early advantage and never looked threatened as he eased clear to claim his third race win of the season on just three marks lost, half the score of second-placed Farré who recorded the day’s best combined results.
“I’m very happy with today with just two mistakes on the big steps of section three,” said Farré. “The bike has worked very well and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Green, the 2023 champion, won a tie-break for third with Hemingway on a total of eight and Bincaz came out on top of a three-way tie-break for fifth on nine.
