Zelhem, in the Netherlands, will go down in the calendar of world trial. This Sunday, Toni Bou (Repsol Honda HRC) was crowned 2026 TrialGP World Champion, his twentieth outdoor crown, reaching a figure that once seemed the stuff of sporting fiction: 40 world titles, 20 outdoor and 20 indoor X-Trial.
Two decades without a rival
Bou made his debut with Repsol Honda HRC in 2007, and since then he hasn’t let a single championship slip away, indoors or out. Twenty consecutive seasons dominating a discipline that has changed format, rivals and generations of riders, without any of it ever moving Bou off the top step. 2026 was no exception: he wrapped up X-Trial back in March in Chalon-sur-Saône, then closed out the year with a near-flawless TrialGP campaign, winning almost every round and building an unassailable points lead before arriving in the Netherlands.
Why trial is, above all, an exercise in braking
Unlike other motorcycling disciplines, trial isn’t raced against the clock or built around top speed: riders compete against gravity and their own margin for error, often at under 5 km/h and over terrain that shouldn’t be rideable at all — wet rock, tree trunks, drops of over a metre. In that context, the brake isn’t a safety system, it’s the primary riding tool: it defines balance, lets the rider pivot on the rear wheel, and controls body weight through every section. A few millimetres of lever travel is the difference between a clean section and a costly fault.
Bou’s Montesa Cota 4RT runs fixed Galfer Disc Wave® rotors (W profile up front, WLLG at the rear) and Galfer Racing pads, which his team alternates between the Trial Top G1805 (semi-metallic) and G1395 (sintered) compounds depending on terrain and conditions at each round. It’s a fine-tuned setup built for exactly what trial demands: progressive, predictable bite over raw stopping power, and consistent response, round after round, title after title.
A record-breaking partnership
Toni Bou’s trust in Galfer for more than a decade is no coincidence, and no mere sponsorship courtesy: it’s proof, round after round, that precision braking can write history too. Forty world titles later, the rider from Piera keeps showing that in trial, mastering the brake means mastering the sport.
