Laia Sanz leaves Trials: "I don't know if it's goodbye or see you later"

The rider Laia Sanz has announced today that, after 13 world Trials titles, she has decided to leave this discipline to focus on Enduro and the Dakar Rally. So the great Trials champion is leaving this specialty and will concentrate on her two current challenges.

This decision came about due to overlapping schedules and the physical demands of competing in three different disciplines. Laia Sanz will not compete in the Trial World Championship. After 13 world titles in this specialty, the rider has decided to retire in order to focus exclusively on enduro and the Dakar Rally.

The decision was made public one day before the 2014 championship kicks off in Belgium, although the greatest motorcycle rider of all time had accepted her withdrawal several months ago.

Sanz’s statements:

I don’t know if it’s goodbye or see you later, but it’s true that I’m taking a break this year and we’ll see. It was a very difficult decision to make, but with the competition calendars we have, it was impossible to combine enduro and trial. I think choosing enduro is the right decision.

On the other hand, the physical and mental demands of preparing for three such different disciplines, if we add rally-raids, had greatly reduced the Catalan rider’s rest time. This even led to some injuries, such as the tendonitis in her left elbow—for which she had surgery approximately three months ago—that she had to endure at the 2014 Dakar and the first round of the 2014 enduro world championship.

It’s difficult to combine three specialties. Riders who do well at the Dakar only prepare for the Dakar, and the same goes for those in enduro or trials. I was doing three things at once and eventually my body started to suffer. I’ve been practically non-stop for several years and I lacked rest, which is an important part of training. The elbow injury was a warning that I had to ease up a bit, and it helped me make the decision.

Now, the goal of the 15-time world champion will be to keep adding titles and try to improve on the extraordinary 16th place overall she achieved this year in the next edition of the Dakar.

Undoubtedly great news for all the participants in the Trial World Championship, as they will no longer have the feared Laia Sanz as a rival.

Source | Laia Sanz Press