Pick a weekend and head into the northern Catalan region of Spain and there is a hefty chance you’ll hear the menacing grumble of a motorcycle somewhere piercing the sun-scorched countryside. Whether enduro machines will end up clattering past or the chime and blip of a Trials bike cuts the air you can be sure that you have entered a hot spot of two-wheeled off-road fandom. It is in this setting of 2-wheeled worship that Toni Bou – like many of Trials’ current stars – was schooled. When most are just learning to balance a bicycle, Bou was honing his judgement to whip a motorcycle over rocks and trees. At just eighteen years of age the Spaniard (pronounced ‘Bow’) hit the world scene and after one season judging the requirements and level needed to succeed he exploded.

Toni’s name directly translated means ‘bull’ and his fearless attack of technical sections both indoors and outdoors soon set him apart from his rivals; the perfect combination of bravado, timing and skill. To-date he has earned four world championships in a row in both the Indoor discipline (vast heights and erratic obstacles like waterfalls, upturned boats, blocks) and the more prestigious Outdoor series (natural courses with gradients, rocks, trees). Simply put he is the modern and undisputed master of Trials, a sport that involves absolute precision motorcycle control and no small amount of guts.