British Iwan Roberts (Beta), French Kieran Touly (Sherco) and German Markus Kipp (TRS) are the winners in the first day of the event held in the historic venue of Bilstain, Belgium, second round of the FIM Europe Championship and Cup.
The schedule foresaw 15 sections to be repeated twice, all in the famous Domain Trial and Enduro, a private area belonged to Crosset family. And more or less the obstacles chosen were the same as those faced for years by the world top riders in the seventies and eighties. Many big rocks, sometimes quite difficult because covered by mud. This time, with the sun shining almost all day long, all the sections were easily overcome by any competitor and in any class.
In the photo @Phototrial, Iwan RobertsRoberts found the right concentration and built his victory recovering from a temporary second place behind Jack Peace (Gas Gas), leader with 19 points at the turning point. With just 3 points more Roberts scored only 10 marks in the whole second lap, while Peace worsened a little his good first performance (22 mistakes), sliding to the third place, overtaken by Spanish Arnau Farrè (Gas Gas) who after a discrete lap scoring 27 was extraordinary, delivering his second card with only 7 points. Not enough to win, but enough to place himself behind the winner. Only fourth position for the previous winner, British Toby Martyn (Vertigo) who lost the podium for just one “clean”, having the same number penalties as his compatriot Peace.
In the photo @Phototrial, Manuel CopettiIn the Junior class the Italian supremacy was broken by the perfect riding of Touly who dropped in total 10 points, one less than Manuel Copetti (Vertigo) still leader in the series. In third position, like one week ago, Sergio Piardi (Beta), who lost only 2 points in the second lap, but having collected 2 “fives” in the first part of the competition, his total was 19.
In the Over 40 class Kipp confirmed his successful performance in the Netherlands. Slovakian Vladimir Kothay (Beta) scored 2 points for lap. Third step of podium for Finn Sami Kymalainen (Scorpa).
In International 1, the winner was Belgian Julien Russelle (Gas Gas) in International 2 German Philipp Emonts (Beta).
Tomorrow there will be the third round in the same venue, but probably with some changes in the sections.
