Laia Sanz Pla-Giribert (born 11 December 1985), also known as Laia Sanz, is a Spanish sportswoman. She is a fourteen-time Women's Trial World Champion and ten-time Women's Trial European Champion in outdoor

motorcycle trials Motorcycle trials, also known as observed trials, often called simply trial/s (with or without the plural "s"), is a non-speed event on specialized motorcycles. The sport is most popular in the United Kingdom and Spain, though there are participan ...

. She has also a member of the Spanish Female Team in the

Trial des Nations ''Trial des Nations'' is the most important Motorcycle trials competition of national teams organized by the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM). After the experiment of Myslenice, Poland, the first official ''trial of Nations'' was held in ...

, helping the team win the event five times (2000, 2002, 2008, 2010, 2011). In 2010, she competed in the Women's Enduro World Championship for the first time. In 2011, she participated for the first time in the

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, ...

, winning the Female motorcycle category and finishing 39th overall, a position that she managed to repeat a year later.

Biography

Early years

Born in 1985, Sanz learned how to ride a bicycle when she was four years old. The first contact with a motorbike came the same year, when her father used to seat her on the petrol tank of his bike and ride her around. By the time she was five, the passion had grown and, without telling anybody, she began to ride her brother's motorbike. Laia's older brother, Joan, also a motorbike aficionado, had a Montesa Cota 25 cc. In 1992, aged seven and encouraged by her mother, she participated in a race at the Catalan Junior Championship that was taking place in her village. She finished eighth and last, but she wanted to come back for more. The next year she joined the Championship from race one. With that step she joined a male-dominated sport without any female championships at the time. In 1997 Sanz won her first race in a male championship, riding an 80 cc bike. She also took part in an international female Trial competition for the first time. In 1998, she took part in the First Edition of the Women's Trial European Championship, unofficial at the time, and won. She was only twelve years old and competing against more mature riders, attracting attention from fans and professional teams. Thanks to such a great result she started to consider a professional career as a rider. Also that year she took part in the Spanish Trial Championship, where she was the only female rider.

International début

In 2000, Sanz won the Spanish Cadet Championship, again the only female rider. This is the most satisfying of her titles according to her. This year sees the First edition of the official Women's Trial European Championship and Women's Trial World Championship. She takes part in both and achieves her first World title and finishes second in the European Championship. She also takes part as a member of the Spanish team in the first edition of the Female Trial Des Nations. And she wins it. From then on she has collected many titles in female international competitions, winning the Women's Trial World Championship seven consecutive times (2000–2006 and 2021). She has also competed in Male Championships with good achievements. She has raced for

Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

, but in 2004 she moved to the official Montesa team. She has won World, European and Spanish titles with both makers. Her teammates at Montesa-HRT were

Toni Bou Antoni Bou i Mena () (born 17 October 1986) is a Spanish professional motorcycle trials rider. He has been the sole outdoor and indoor FIM Trial World Championship champion from 2007 to 2022. With these 32 world titles (16 outdoor and 16 indoor), ...

and Takahisa Fujinami until 2011. For the 2012 season she raced for

Gas Gas Gas Gas is a Spanish motorcycle manufacturer established in 1985 by Narcìs Casas and Josep Pibernat in Salt, Girona. The company specializes in off-road motorcycles for trials and enduro competitions. Gas Gas was purchased by KTM motorcycle ...

The Dakar and Enduro

In 2010 Sanz finally got the much awaited chance to train for the

, a childhood dream, and joined the Dakar Legend Jordi Arcarons as a trainer, another childhood dream. She also participated in the Women’s Enduro World Championship as part of her training for the Dakar and, she achieved a respectable third place after only participating in two of the three events. She also kept competing in observed trials where she won World, Europe and Spanish championship and Trial des Nations. She participated in the 2011 edition of the

, on a Honda CRF450X as part of the Team Arcarons RST KH-7, with Arcarons as a backup. She won the Female class, and managed a consistent performance with a 39th position overall. At the Women’s Enduro World Championship she took part in all the events and finished second. For the 2012 edition of the

she moved to the

team, making their official début at the rally, and had Marc Guasch as her backup. Sanz suffered an accident during the 4th stage, injuring her hand and damaging the petrol tank on her Gas Gas 450 cc but she kept going and managed to finish the stage. Despite having to ride "solo" for the rest of the rally, Sanz repeated her 39th position and was the only woman to finish the rally raid on a motorbike, Female class. In 2015, Sanz achieved her best finish and also the best finish ever for a female rider at the Dakar, taking 9th place in the motorbike class on a

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

.http://www.catalannewsagency.com/sports/item/catalan-riders-marc-coma-and-laia-sanz-make-history-at-dakar-2015 In the 2016 edition of the

, Sanz raced for

KTM KTM AG (Kraftfahrzeug Trunkenpolz Mattighofen, formerly KTM Sportmotorcycle AG) is an Austrian motorcycle, bicycle and sports car manufacturer owned by Pierer Mobility AG and the Indian manufacturer Bajaj Auto. It was formed in 1992 but traces ...

and placed 15th in the motorbike general ranking. In

2020 Dakar Rally The 2020 Dakar Rally was the 42nd edition of the event and the first edition held in Saudi Arabia. The event started in Jeddah on 5 January and finished in Al-Qiddiya on 17 January after 12 stages of the competition. This was also the first eve ...

Laia finished 25th overall.

Auto racing

Sanz has made several appearances at her home race in the 24H series, the 24 Hours of Barcelona. She won her class in 2011. She also made guest appearances in the

SEAT León Eurocup The SEAT León Eurocup was a one-make racing, one-make touring car racing series which uses SEAT Leóns, run by SEAT Sport. Background The championship began in 2008, making its debut at Circuit de Valencia, as a support series for the World To ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Titles

:Refers to position achieved with Spanish National Team.

Racing record

Complete Extreme E results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) ^* Season still in progress.