After getting the 2023 World Championship underway in Arteixo, the competition heads southbound some 500 kilometres, crossing the border and entering Portugal’s Serra da Estrela. The second round of the Trial World Championship will be hosted by Gouveia, a small former textiles town.
After the opening round of the elite class event last weekend in Spain, Portugal takes over with a new challenge for the Vertigo riders. Alfie Lampkin’s podium finish on the first day of competition in Arteixo proved to be a major boost, not only for the young British rider, but also for all the other riders of the marque with the green livery as they head into a new trial event this weekend.
The Vertigo riders are all set to compete on tough terrain, with half of the twelve sections marked out in water, some of them without the possibility of receiving any assistance from the ‘minders’, and with various new sections at an altitude of around 800 metres above sea level.
Representing the brand in Gouveia will be, in TrialGP, Matteo Grattarola; in Trial2, Pau Martínez, Mattia Spreafico, Adrià Mercadé and Emile Mattheeuws; and in Trial3, Alfie Lampkin. The best results in Gouveia have been two third places in 2019 and 2021 in TrialGP and a third place in Trial2 in 2019. Lampkin will make his debut for Vertigo in the smallest of the world championship categories in Gouveia.
Just like in Arteixo, the riders will be able to briefly test out the bikes on Friday at noon, following the administrative and technical scrutineering. Once the bikes have been set-up, they will be cordoned off in the parc fermé until the trial gets underway on Saturday morning.
