Pamplona prepares for its X-Trial World Championship debut
The inaugural X-Trial Pamplona comes from the Navarra Arena this Saturday
Spanish city Pamplona, the regional capital of Navarra, will make its first appearance on the X-Trial calendar as it hosts Round Two of the 2023 World Championship. With a capacity of 10,000 spectators, the Navarra Arena is a modern facility that opened as recently as 2018.
The series returns to Spain with just five points separating the season’s two event winners: Toni Bou (Repsol Honda Trial Team) and Jaime Busto (GasGas). 16-times World Champion Bou took the early lead with victory at X-Trial Barcelona, but rival Busto was a comfortable winner at X-Trial Wiener Neustadt two weeks ago to re-ignite his title challenge.
Gabriel Marcelli (Repsol Honda Trial Team) and Adam Raga (TRRS) have each made one trip to the podium in 2023; Marcelli took second place at the Palau Sant Jordi after winning a tie-break against Raga, then Raga got his revenge, again on countback, by pipping Marcelli to third at the Arena Nova last time out.
Matteo Grattarola (Vertigo) completes the permanent rider roster, the Italian hoping he can make more of an impression in Pamplona than he has at either of the two Rounds thus far as he continues to recover from injury. France’s Benoit Bincaz (Sherco), who has twice finished sixth but occupies fifth in the Championship, will target his first podium of the season. And Toby Martyn (Montesa) makes another bid to repeat his exploits from Chalon-sur-Saône last year.
Sondre Haga (GasGas) finished bottom of the event riders at X-Trial Barcelona and dropped out of the field for Wiener Neustadt, but he makes his return here. Aniol Gelabert will again be the lone Beta representative, still one of the biggest talking points of the visit to Austria after his strong opening run and a fifth place finish.
A great show and plenty of excitement are guaranteed from this brilliant new venue for the third Round of the 2023 X-Trial World Championship.
X-Trial Pamplona gets underway at 19:00 local time. Don’t miss a moment with www.x-trial.tv
