The FIM Trial des Nations (TdN) takes place this coming weekend at Arteixo in Spain and while the action in the Women’s category \u2013 as well as in the International Trophy and Challenge des Nations classes \u2013 is too close to call, the writing is on the wall for any country hoping to take the fight to the Spanish trio in the Men’s competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fielding last year’s winning Men’s team comprising Toni Bou (Montesa), Jaime Busto (Beta) and Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa), Spain will be bidding for its thirty-second TdN title and its twenty-second in a row as it stages the annual competition to determine the world’s leading Trial nation for the seventh time.
Given these impressive statistics, it should come as no surprise to learn that the Spanish men have never lost a TdN on home soil and, what is more, the last time the world’s best riders visited Arteixo in the Galicia region \u2013 for the opening round of the 2023 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship \u2013 Spanish riders, including all three 2026 team members, filled the top-five positions on both days.
Born and bred in Galicia, Marcelli knows the area better than most and cannot wait to put on the red and yellow colours of his nation to compete in front of his home fans.
“It is always special to compete in Galicia,” said Marcelli. “It’s a beautiful part of the country and the terrain is perfect for Trial. Racing in my home region and representing my country makes it even more meaningful so I am looking forward to the weekend.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Featuring huge granite rocks studded into the side of a wide wooded valley, as Marcelli said the area provides perfect terrain for Trial and an ideal location for the anticipated battle for the remaining medals between Great Britain, Italy and France with all three nations making one change to the teams they fielded in Tolmezzo last year.
In Italy in 2025 it was Great Britain that claimed silver, forty-nine marks behind Spain and six ahead of Italy and this time around brothers Harry and George Hemingway (Beta) are joined by Harry Turner (Sherco) who replaces Jack Peace in the side.\u00a0
With an average age under twenty, it is a very youthful team, but all three riders have performed exceptionally well this year in the Hertz FIM Trial World Championship with Harry Hemingway scoring three overall podium finishes from the concluding five days of competition in his first season in TrialGP, George Hemingway ending the Trial2 series as vice-champion and Turner taking two overall wins in Trial2.
Once again led by evergreen thirty-eight-year-old Matteo Grattarola (Beta), the Italian trio is completed by eighteen-year-old Francesco Titli (Montesa) \u2013 who returns for the second successive season \u2013 and thirty-three-year-old Gianluca Tournour who takes the place of Lorenzo Gandola.
Grattarola has enjoyed a fantastic year in TrialGP to finish fourth for the second season in a row while Titli has climbed eight places in Trial2 in 2026, scoring two runner-up positions and one victory on his way to sixth in the closely-contested class. Tournour has been less active over recent years with his last full season in Trial2 coming in 2023 when he ended the year ranked eleventh after finishing sixth the previous season.
The French effort is led by thirty-year-old Benoit Bincaz (Electric Motion) with support from thirty-six-year-old Alex Ferrer \u2013 a late replacement for the injured Hugo Dufrese \u2013 and seventeen-year-old Pablo Echene (Sherco).
Despite missing the opening round of the Hertz FIM Trial World Championship, Bincaz finished the season ranked fifth in Trial2 with six podium finishes including two victories while Ferrer \u2013 who has been relatively inactive over recent seasons \u2013 is a hugely experienced rider who made his TrialGP debut in 2012 and achieved his highest ranking of seventh in 2015.
With a nation’s best two scores in each section counting towards its total, Echene’s form could be crucial to the French effort and after finishing the season ranked tenth in Trial2 he will be feeling the pressure as he prepares to make his TdN debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italy won a close-fought battle with Spain in last year’s Women’s competition and fields an unchanged team of Andrea Sofia Rabino (Beta), Alessia Bacchetta and Martina Gallieni (Sherco) to take on the Spanish trio of two-time and reigning FIM TrialGP Women champion Berta Abellan (Scorpa), Abril Montserrat (Beta) and Daniela Hernando (Beta). The second-tier International Trophy entry is headed by last year’s victors the USA \u2013 led by 2025 winning team member Alex Myers (Scorpa) alongside Alex Niederer (Beta) and Ryon Land (Sherco) \u2013 with strong opposition expected from the Japanese trio of Shinya Hirohata (Montesa), Jin Kuroyama (Sherco) and Yohito Takeda (Honda). The FIM Trial des Nations (TdN) takes place this coming weekend at Arteixo in Spain and while the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[311,476],"class_list":["post-15992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-motorsports","tag-trial"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
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The battle at the front is expected to be between twenty-six-year-old Abellan and twenty-year-old Rabino \u2013 this year’s vice-champion \u2013 but twenty-one-year-old Bacchetta, who was fourth in TrialGP Women this season, could play a pivotal role. At thirty-two years old, Gallieni is the most senior member of the Italian women’s team with a highest TrialGP Women ranking of eighth \u2013 achieved in 2022 \u2013 and has posted four top-ten finishes this season from the six days she has contested.
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By contrast, the remaining two Spanish riders’ experience has come in Trial2 Women where Montserrat won this year’s title with Hernando second, although it remains to be seen how they perform against the elite TrialGP Women competitors.
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Bronze medallists twelve months ago, Great Britain has tempted its ten-time TrialGP Women champion Emma Bristow (Sherco) out of retirement<\/strong> to lead Alice Minta (Beta)<\/strong> and Kaytlyn Adshead<\/strong> into battle.
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While thirty-five-year-old Bristow has not turned a wheel in top-flight competition since helping her nation \u2013 alongside Minta and Adshead \u2013 win the TdN title in 2024, twenty-two-year-old Minta has been in the form of her life in TrialGP Women this season to finish the year in a career-best third, three places above twenty-one-year-old Adshead.
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Before Italy’s victory last season, the last time a country other than Spain or Great Britain won the TdN Women title was in 2005 when Germany claimed victory, but with strong teams from France \u2013 led by fifth-ranked TrialGP Women rider Alicia Soyer \u2013 as well as Germany, the USA, Andorra and Poland entered, this year’s medals will be fiercely contested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Having lost silver to Japan last year on a tie-break, Germany’s Paul Reumsch\u00fcssel (Montesa), Jonathan Heidel (Beta) and Rodney Bereiter (Beta) have a point to prove, but with a healthy entry of sixteen countries from four continents in action the eventual medal positions are by no means clear-cut.
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Now in its fifth season, the Challenge des Nation category is for two-rider, mixed-gender teams and Norway have put the defence of the title in the hands of Patrick Bj\u00f8rnland Larsen (Scorpa) and Wilde Moi (Beta), but with eleven nations entered and strong teams from, in particular, Great Britain, Italy and Germany, this is another category that is simply too close to call.
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