Motorcycle: winner of the Goudargues trial, the Catalan Gelabert Roura no longer touches the ground

First success in 2024 for Catalan Miquel Gelabert, certainly not the last. Midi Libre – Jean Attard

Test réussi pour le Gardois Loris Gubian en catégorie TR1, même s’il a été dominé par le très expérimenté Alexandre Ferrer. Midi Libre – Jean Attard

Contre le pilote espagnol Miquel Gelabert Roura, ce lundi de Pâques, les Français Bincaz et Dufrese n’ont rien pu faire sur les zones de Goudargues où se déroulait la première manche du championnat de France de trial.

When a Spanish rider joins the (too) small group entered in the French Elite championship, the French trialists have something to worry about. This well-known scenario is likely to happen again in 2024. This time, the Iberian pilot is called Miquel Gelabert Roura. He shone this Easter Monday in the ten zones of the Goudargues trial. For this opening of the season, we were expecting Varois Benoît Bincaz (Sherco) or Deux-Sévrien Hugo Dufrese (Gas Gas), respectively reigning champion and vice-champion of France. Error, the star was Gelabert (Vertigo). And hands down please!

A failure breaks Dufrese's momentum

Everything started well for Dufrese who passed the first zone of the first lap without setting foot. It even caused sparks, appreciated by the public, in the first meters of zone n° 2. But a failure broke his momentum; he then came back to the level of the two drivers who were going to give him a hard time all day: Bincaz and, above all, Gelabert Roura.

The French were a step below

With 130 drivers in the race, sun and areas reworked in an emergency, the French championship was off to a good start, despite the cancellation of Saturday and Sunday, due to bad weather.

At the end of a very long first lap, where recognition of the zones took on all its importance and while the allotted time began to give the drivers a cold sweat, the first classification confirmed the advantage gained by Gelabert. With 22 penalty points and despite three failures on very tricky terrain, the Catalan was ahead of Bincaz (28 pts), Teo Colairo (Beta, 29 pts), Hugo Dufrese (31 pts) and Gaël Chatagno (EM, 38 pts).

In the second loop, more rhythmic, Gelabert hit the nail on the head. He thus lined up seven faultless and increased his lead. Which did not prevent him, like a great champion, from railing against the slightest of his errors or those of his follower!

A final breathtaking ride from Gelabert Roura

There remained an even more breathtaking final round for the Spaniard: seven perfect runs, only one failure and 41 points in the end. In his wheel, the Franco-French duel turned to the advantage of Dufrese (63 pts) against Bincaz (66 pts). The two tricolors have only one alternative: get used to it or take their driving level up a notch.

Among the women, Naomi Monnier outperformed the competition in the Goudargues zones. Midi Libre – Jean Attard

Gardoise Monnier outclasses the competition

In the TR1 category, the very experienced Alexandre Ferrer (Montesa) won easily ahead of the Gardois Loris Gubian (TRS) and Rémi Rovery (Sherco) and the Provençal Mederic Delannoy (Montesa).

As for the female elite, Gardoise Naomi Monnier (Montesa, 13 pts) outclassed her opponents, in order, Alycia Soyer (TRS, 32 pts), Marine Aurières (Gas Gas, 65 pts) and Margaux Pena (EM, 72 pts).

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