Toni Bou wrapped up his 20th consecutive TrialGP world title at a rain-slicked Zelhem this weekend — a 40th world championship in total in an incredible 20-year perfect streak.

Meanwhile Miquel Gelabert took the Honda RTL Electric to 5th overall on both days, the sole electric machine in a stacked field, and finished third in Saturday’s opening race, one mark off second.

Round 6 of 7 in the 2026 TrialGP World Championship ran September 4–6 at Zelhem, in the eastern Netherlands on an entirely man-made course. There’s no natural rock at Zelhem; instead the sections are built from mammoth boulders, huge concrete slabs and giant pipes sunk into the ground, including a brutal rock-step feature in section ten and an “imposing step” in section four that would end up deciding the weekend’s final race.

Rain moved through ahead of Saturday’s action, leaving the course greasy and unpredictable early on, before it dried out through the day. Sunday arrived warm and dry, with — by most riders’ account — plenty of grip on the artificial hazards. Dutch organisers described “brilliant weather” and full stands across both days, a reminder that trials remains a genuine home crowd-puller in the Netherlands.

Bou’s undefeated 20-year reign

Bou didn’t just win the round, he wrapped up the championship, taking Sunday’s opening race despite an uncharacteristic maximum on section two along the way. It’s title number 20 in TrialGP specifically — every one of them since he signed for Repsol Honda HRC in 2007 — stacked on top of 20 X-Trial (indoor) titles, for 40 world championships total. Honda’s own numbers put him at 175 wins and 234 podiums from 290 outdoor TrialGP starts, plus 99 wins and 117 podiums across 129 X-Trial rounds. It’s the kind of statistical dominance that has no real comparison anywhere else in motorcycle sport. He is the undisputed GOAT.

“Winning my 40th world title is incredible, and it’s still hard to believe we did it,” Bou said. “This season has been amazing; we’ve been very consistent.”

Even so, Zelhem wasn’t a total whitewash. Jaime Busto — Bou’s closest challenger all year on the factory Beta — won Sunday’s second race outright after Bou clipped a maximum on that section-four step in the Final, breaking a Bou winning streak that had run to 21 consecutive races.

It was Busto’s first individual race win of the season, and while it changed nothing about the title, it’s a small crack of daylight for anyone hoping the era of total Bou control might one day end. “Jaime was super-strong in the second race and I had just one mistake in one section so he won,” Bou said afterward, characteristically gracious in victory. Busto and Marcelli will now fight out runner-up honours at the season finale in Spain, on 324 and 317 points respectively.

Gelabert and the RTL Electric: the season so far

With the title question settled early, the most interesting on-track story of the weekend belonged to Miquel Gelabert on Honda’s RTL Electric — the only electric motorcycle competing in the TrialGP field, now in its first season racing full-time in the premier class after Gelabert spent 2025 developing the bike in Trial2.

Zelhem was the bike’s strongest weekend since Italy. Saturday’s opening race saw Gelabert go 3rd — just one mark behind Busto — before a tougher second race dropped him to 6th, and 5th overall for the day on 25 points. Sunday followed a near-identical pattern: 4th in the opening race, 5th in the second, for another 5th overall on 24 points.

The season hasn’t been a straight line. Gelabert made his TrialGP premier-class debut in Japan in May — 6th on day one, 5th on day two — after two years building the electric platform’s credibility in the junior Trial2 class. Andorra in June was rockier (6th on day one), but Italy the following weekend brought the bike’s best weekend of the year: 4th on both days, genuinely in the fight for a podium. Great Britain in July went the other way — 6th overall, his weakest round of the season. France at the end of August steadied things at 5th, and Zelhem now makes it two rounds in a row inside the top five.

He now sits 5th in the championship with 259 points heading into the final round in Spain (September 18–20).

“I felt great on the bike all weekend, and I’m very happy with the work we’ve done,” Gelabert said after Zelhem — modest words for a rider who took third in Saturday’s opening race against factory Beta and Montesa machinery, on a bike that didn’t exist in this category two years ago.

It was a weekend that belonged, though, to Bou and his incredible 40th title.

Sources: MCNews, “Bou claims 40th world title as Busto ends perfect TrialGP run”; official Day 1 and Day 2 TrialGP classifications, trialgp.com; Honda Racing round reports; KNMV.