It started on a bike and has ended on a bike. Between the bike that his parents, Toni Bou and Imma Mena, gave him at the age of four, and the racing bike that he wears today, and with which he trains very often on the Andorran roads, there is a big difference. With that one he learned to be the best tightrope walker in the world and with the one he is now just keeping fit.
When I say that it started by bike and ended by bike it is because, from those first days in Piera (Barcelona), where Toni Bou Mena was born on October 17, 1986, just remember victories, many victories. Between the ages of six and 14 he jumped (and never better said) from the bike to the motorcycle, although he liked the bike better because it was lighter than the motorcycle and allowed him to play at being the best mountebank in the world.
When I say that it started on a bike and ended on a bike, it is because at the age of five he already won his first titlesbut the other day, before getting on the bike to continue practicing, Bou, 36, 32 trial titles, 211 victories and 279 podiumswas defeated, going down Envalira, by his partner, the lawyer Esther Piquer, who does not mess with little girls.
“Okay, okay! She beat me, but she’s a professional on the bike and, yes, we stung a bit, and she left me behind, don’t think too far back!” And it is that Esther, not to be left behind, has signed for the Andona cycling team and he needs to be as fit as Bou.
Jokes aside, we are facing the human being, the sportsman, the athlete, the champion, who has won more and better in the past and in the present century. No one has accumulated so many medals, so many world titles, on his stout arms and robust neck, as Toni Bou (Montesa Honda), who currently has 32 scepters and is on his way to 33 (look, the victory pursued by the great Fernando Alonso in the F-1!) Well, right now, leads the 2023 World Cup ahead of the new wonder of the specialty, the young Jaime Bust (GasGas).
When someone tries to describe what Bou is and represents for sport, they usually remember that the great Michael Phelps hogs 28 Olympic medals and that the little gymnast simon bileswho will reappear in a few days, has 25 medals, two less (23) than the Grand Slams that the prodigious Serbian tennis player has Novak Djokovic. But no one has 32 world titles, nor has they won non-stop for 17 consecutive years.
A monster
TRUE, trial is a minority sport. It is true, Bou does not have 150 rivals who aspire to dethrone him as is the case, for example, with Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Carlitos Alcaraz. But what Bou is doing in the trial converts what other monsters did, huge, tremendous, like Doug Lampkin and/or Jordi Tarrésin minor feats.
Bou has invented a way of competing that has nothing to do with the past and, probably, neither with the future, despite the fact that, in another demonstration of his kindness, dimension, professionalism, generosity and masteryhe himself has been in charge of teaching, I repeat, despite the fact that he is his greatest rival, Jaime Busto (GasGas), whom he has rocked on his lap and discovered (and given away) his secrets.
Bou is so good, so good, that he competes against himself. That is why he defends that “everything, and even more so after 30 years of age, is in the head. It is the head that converts and keeps you on top. And it will be the head that tells me when I have to quit.
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Nobody, nobody, knows Bou better than Miquel Cirera, the man who has been by his side these 17 years, his boss, his adviser, his friend. «Extraordinary person and best friend. Humble, open and a real sponge when it comes to accepting advice. As an athlete he is a 10, an 11, a 12. A gentleman. He helps everyone. I always tell him, ‘you have no idea what you’re doing, Toni, when you retire you’ll realize what a beast you’ve been’. He, now, does not give value to what he does and it is crazy ».
Tomorrow there is revenge in Envalira. I’m afraid that Esther, no matter how good she is, she is!, has to lose. Bou only loses twice a year. If he loses.