Putting a frustrating second round of the FIM TrialGP World Championship behind him, GASGAS Factory Racing’s Jorge Casales has delivered his best result of the series to date with an impressive pair of third-place results at a demanding TrialGP of Andorra, the third and penultimate round of the 2020 championship.
The first of the three laps on day one in Andorra was extremely challenging for all riders due to rain making the sections incredibly slippery. With no rider managing to complete any lap without mistakes, for Casales lap one was a mixture of performances. Scoring six maximum scores of five marks lost, he ended lap one with a total score of 33 yet focused on improving. Delivering notably better second and third laps, Casales ended the day in third to claim his first podium of the 2020 series.
With drier conditions for day two, Casales again rode well and again finished third overall. Performing consistently on each of the three laps the Spaniard came out on top of a day-long battle with Takahisa Fujinami to join Toni Bou and Adam Raga on the podium and move up to fourth in the 2020 TrialGP championship standings.
Competing in Andorra following strong 5-5 results at the recent TrialGP of Spain, GASGAS supported Miquel Gelabert again performed well, placing 10th on day one before bouncing back to match his best result of the season so far with a fifth-place finish on day two. Gelabert sits seventh in the TrialGP standings with one event remaining.
With the TrialGP of Andorra marking the third consecutive round of 2020 Trial World Championship competition, Jorge Casales and his GASGAS Factory Racing team now enjoy a two-week break before the fourth and final round of the series takes place in Italy on October 10-11.
Jorge Casales: “This has been a very important result for me. Finally, I rode like I know I can in world championship competition. In the Spanish championship, which has a similar level, I have been finishing on the podium, but I wasn’t able to find my rhythm in the world championship. I can say I needed to bounce back, which I did. The first day was hard and the scores were really high, but we kept doing our best despite the wet conditions. The first lap was really hard, it was really important to keep fighting to the end of the day. To be able to finish on the podium again feels great. I really focused on the first lap and felt like I rode well. Holding second during lap two was really good, but I was maybe a little bit too confident in the drier conditions on lap three and made some mistakes. I’m pleased that I stayed ahead of Fujinami, because he was pushing me really hard. So, it’s been a good weekend. Now I need to rest a little and start to prepare for the final round of the series in two weeks.”
Results: FIM Trial World Championship 2020, Round 3
TrialGP – day 1
1. Adam Raga (TRRS) 50; 2. Toni Bou (Montesa) 56; 3. Jorge Casales (GASGAS) 73; 4. Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) 79; 5. James Dabill (Beta) 82; 6. Jaime Busto (Vertigo) 83… 10. Miquel Gelabert (GASGAS) 101…
TrialGP – day 2
1. Toni Bou (Montesa) 28; 2. Adam raga (TRRS) 48; 3. Jorge Casales (GASGAS) 70; 4. Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa) 72; 5. Miquel Gelabert (GASGAS) 74; 6. Jaime Busto (Vertigo) 77…
Championship standings: FIM Trial World Championship 2020, (after round 3)
TrialGP
1. Toni Bou (Montesa) 112 points; 2. Adam Raga (TRRS) 102; 3. Jaime Busto (Vertigo) 81; 4. Jorge Casales (GASGAS) 66; 5. Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa) 59; 6. Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa) 57; 7. Miquel Gelabert (GASGAS) 56