Women and Youth classes are going to dispute their championships on the banks of Baltic Sea because the round # 2 and # 3 of the FIM Europe Trial series will be held for the first time in the town of Liepaja, Latvia.
The 2 km long circuit with 14 sections featured in is going to be decisive for assigning the 2017 titles in these two classes, because after this weekend there will be only one round left scheduled for the first week of August. Two separated rounds, one on Saturday and one on Sunday to show to Latvia public for the first time in the Trial history, an International qualified competition of this specialty.
They will be lucky to see the two times World Women Champion, British Emma Bristow (Sherco, in photo1) coming from a brilliant 40th place in the hard Scottish Six Days, known as the most famous and tough competition in the world.
She won quite easily the first round held in Zelhem, Holland almost one month ago and can’t wait to repeat her performance in the coming two days competition. Former champion German Theresa Bauml (Beta) will be quite unhappy to see Emma, who beat her clear at the first round, but now has had the time to elaborate her strategy to keep her concentration at very high level, hoping in some mistakes happen to her rival, in case of too easy competition. If we can bet for sure on the above two girls on the first two steps of the podium, more uncertain is to guess who will climb on the third step. Norwegian Ingveig Hakonsen (Beta) has a slight favor but Keity Mejer (Sherco), coming not far from here, will be able to count on her fans to push her as high as possible.
In the Youth class, the previous winner is British Oliver Smith (Gas Gas) and he will be the one on whom set our sights on, but in this class reserved to very young riders, their progresses are so rapidly that any forecast become too difficult. Watching the Trial 125 world round, held just fifteen days ago, French Ugo Defrese (Gas Gas, photo2) finished in third position cutting a very fine figure. But this fourteen year old rider reached a modest sixth place at the first European round. Pushed by living not distant, some other Nordic riders will get this chance to climb on higher positions. Swedish Linus Almthen (Scorpa) and Norwegian Mats Nilsen (Sherco) with German Florian Ruedi (Beta), all of them fought very hard in the Netherlands and finished separated by just 2 points and so they are serious candidates to rostrum positions.
The weather is expected to be fine for both days. As usual there are other two classes one level below: Women International and Youth International to let beginners enjoy their participation without any matters.
To download the entry-list and to get further info, please visit the web site of the local club:
http://ectrialliepaja2017.lv/en/fim-europe-ec-liepaja-2017/entry-list/
Photos @Phototrial.it
