He 48th UNIVERSAE Indoor Trial of Barcelona and the 5th Women’s Trophy Barcelona already know all the names of the participating pilots, eight in the fourth round of the men’s X-Trial World Championship and five in the event that opens the new FIM Women’s X-Trial Trophy. Each test will see the debut of a driver at the Palau Sant Jordi.
The poster for the event that will mark the halfway point of the 2025 X-Trial World Championship is headed by the current world champion and defender of the crown at the Palau, Toni Bou. The holder of 36 world titles already has 17 victories at Sant Jordi and is the protagonist of a series of five consecutive victories in Barcelona that began in 2020.
Bou’s main rival, a priori, will be the world runner-up, Jaime Busto. The Basque driver took victory in Madrid – the opening round of the World Championship – and is looking for his first victory at the Palau, the scene where last year he achieved his best result in ten participations: second.
Toni Bou’s teammate, Gabriel Marcelli, starts a new season as “third in contention”, a label that the Galician wants to release as soon as possible. Two second places in Barcelona support that desire, but consistency remains the pending issue for the O Rosal driver.
All eyes will also be on Adam Raga, a multiple world champion who, at 42 years old, continues to climb to the World Cup podiums – he has just finished third in Madrid – and breaking records. Six-time winner at the Palau, the man from Ulldecona will put an end to his successful sporting career in top competition at the 48th UNIVERSAE Indoor Trial in Barcelona. On February 2, Adam Raga will jump on the Sant Jordi track for the 24th and last time. The one from Sherco has taken part in half of the editions of an almost fiftieth anniversary event. Next to nothing.
The fifth Spanish driver in Sant Jordi will be Aniol Gelabert (TRRS). The youngest of the family saga will repeat his presence at the UNIVERSAE Trial Indoor in Barcelona, where he debuted last year.
Spain, as the leading world power in trials, will be the majority at the Palau, while international representation will come with the three riders who complete the lineup: the Frenchman Benoît Bincaz, the Italian Matteo Grattarola and the British Harry Hemingway.
Bincaz is looking for his first podium in Barcelona (he finished the 2024 World Championship with a brilliant second place in Pamplona), the veteran Grattarola already knows the Sant Jordi box (he was third in 2022) and the young 18-year-old driver Harry Hemingway will make his debut in La Catedral in his first season in the World X-Trial. Trial3 world champion when he was 16, the Leeds native is the current British trial champion.
Berta Abellán, to retain her victory at the Palau
The pilot from Terrassa and current runner-up in the trial world, Berta Abellán, will be the great favorite for victory in the 5th Women’s Trophy. Not only because of her status as winner of the last edition – her first success at the Palau – but also because this time she will no longer face her great rival and multiple world champion, Emma Bristow, who has already retired from high competition.
However, the Spaniard from Scorpa should not be the least bit confident, because the progression of drivers such as the Italian Andrea Sofia Rabino or the French Naomi Monnier – third and fourth in the 2024 World Championship respectively – is being evident at each start of the season.
It is tradition that the Women’s Trophy brings together the top five finishers from the TrialGPWomen World Championship from the previous season. On this occasion, Emma Bristow’s goodbye has given access to the sixth, Alice Minta. The British woman will be able to celebrate her recent signing for the Italian brand Beta in Barcelona.
The quintet of drivers for the Women’s Trophy is completed by the Czech Denisa Pechackova living in Spain. On a Catalan motorcycle (TRRS), the fifth classified in the World Championship will set foot on the Palau Sant Jordi track for the first time and will compete while being seen live by thousands of people. A privilege that all her rivals already enjoyed at the time and that has given rise to the launch by the International Motorcycle Federation of the new FIM Women’s X-Trial Trophy. Barcelona and Stavanger (Norway) will be the two scoring events of the first edition of this new championship.
Another compelling reason to be at the Palau: Adam Raga, legend of trial and the Barcelona Indoor Trial, says goodbye
The UNIVERSAE Trial Indoor in Barcelona has been the venue chosen by Adam Raga (Ulldecona, Tarragona, 1982) to put an end to his sporting career in top competition. One of the pilots who would make up the top-5 in the history of this sport wants his last race to take place at his “home”, at the Palau Sant Jordi, in the Trial Cathedral indoor.
The same place that saw Adam as a child and spectator and Adam Raga as a pilot and winner, a few years later, of the most famous and important indoor trial event of the World Championship. “My first victory in Barcelona in 2002 is unforgettable. And I remember perfectly how the year before I was sitting in the stands watching that same competition and so calm.”, he said.
Nobody has more participations than him (23 to date) in the UNIVERSAE Trial Indoor in Barcelona. Takahisa Fujinami retired with 19, Albert Cabestany with 18 and Doug Lampkin with 13. Toni Bou (who is currently 19) is the only one in a position to take this record from Ulldecona in the coming years.
25 years in the elite… and only 3 brands: GasGas, TRRS and Sherco. “With GasGas I experienced my greatest sporting successes; We made the new TRRS number one in sales and Sherco allowed me to continue competing at the highest level in the final stretch of my career.”.
Synonymous with masterful technique on a trial motorcycle (“When in a competition the technique areas took precedence over the strength areas, I have always been the favorite“), Adam Raga is the third driver with the most victories (6) at La Catedral. Only Bou (17) and Jordi Tarrés (7) surpass him. 18 podiums in 23 participations in the UNIVERSAE Trial Indoor in Barcelona say it all.
Adam Raga will say goodbye to the fans of the Palau Sant Jordi (“by far the most knowledgeable and expert audience in trials in the world“) with six world titles in his record – two outdoors and four indoors -, in addition to a Junior World Championship and a European Championship. He will abandon the competitive front line, but he will not separate himself from the sport of his life at all: “I will continue competing, although in lower level events, and above all I will dedicate myself fully to the training of young pilots at my school, from which the first champions have already emerged.”.
Adam Raga is thoroughly preparing for his last participation in the UNIVERSAE Trial Indoor in Barcelona. On February 2 he wants to do it well. If he repeats the Madrid podium on December 21, it would be the ultimate but, no matter what happens, his exit through the trial’s “big door” is assured.
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