Honda factory rider Toni Bou is the 2020 X-Trial champion, and after much waiting, he’s finally got his medal.

The X-Trial series events are based out of several different countries, including European dates and overseas visits. It might not have the glamour of MotoGP, but the riders do get around. Of course, that created a problem in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic basically shut down non-essential international travel.

Like MotoGP, World Superbike, the FIM Cross Country Rally series and other international race series, X-Trial started to cancel events last winter. By late March, organizers realized they weren’t going to overcome the COVID-19 problem. After canceling the Andorra la Vella event, they then canceled the rest of the X-Trial season. The Reunion Island, Rennes, Budapest, Barcelona and Bilbao were the only events that actually ran with points counted towards the championship. That’s still not bad, getting in five 2020-series events before canceling in March.

Toni Bou dominated the scorechart in the 2020 season, winning every event that counted in the championship. He ended the season with 100 points aboard his Montesa; Adam Raga had 75 points on his TRRS, earning second in every event. Jeroni Fajardo was third, with 34 points aboard his Sherco.

Normally, there would have been a full championship season, with a full awards ceremony at the end, but the FIM only just got around to giving the top three riders their medals in an in-person award ceremony, thanks to the pandemic.

In a post-medal press release from Honda (remember, Honda owns Montesa), Bou was very gracious towards his competitors. “The season was a very positive one, because I won all the trials, although it was tough because the riders were more evenly matched than the result of the final championship table shows,” he said. “It was not easy to make a difference, especially in the finals.” Kind words, considering Bou’s dominating performance.

The 2021 X-Trial championship is slated to start on October 2, with the Marseille event. Find more deets at X-Trial.com.

Vezi sursa