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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126000
Rathmell cleans WagnerCup By Gary Van Voorhis ESCOHEAG, R.I., JULY 20 Britain's Malcolm Rathmell moved one step closer to clinching his second consecutive World Trials Championship with a WIll In America's first Championship trials venue, the Wagner Cup. T he popular Mon tesa rider was follo we d in t he final tabulations by th e Bulta cos of Finnish rider Yrjo Ves t erine n and Spaniard Man uel So ler-Bulto with Swe den 's U1f Karlson on a Mon tesa an d Bu ltaco-rnoun te d Fren chm an Charles Cou tard fo llowing ; Americans Lane Leavi tt (ninth) , J oe Guglielmelli (11th), Bob Hopkins (13th) and Mark Eggar (14th) placing well. In winning Rathmell opened up a 19 gross point lead in the standings, Net points to determine th e ch am p io nship com e from the rider's best eight rides. Th e U.S. round was the ninth of 13 even ts. Yrjo Vestervinen by virtue o f his second p lace fini sh today coup led with last week 's win in Canada, moves in to second p lace in th e stan dings dropping Martin Lampkin (Bul) to third. Enth usiasts fro m everywhere showed up in Escoheag to get a close, first han d look at th e wo rld's best trials rid ers. What they saw m ade many a pers on come away from th e event sh aking their head and muttering "Damn , I just don 't be lieve wha t I saw th ose guys do. " Eleven fo re ign rid ers, including the to p eight in the present world st an din gs, came to tou rney, along with 20 Ameri can riders, o n the sce nic Rhode Island cou rse . During the ice age, millions of years ago, glaciers h ad ca rved th e land in to rolli ng hills and valley s strewn wi th roc ks-rand boulders o f varying sizes . It was over, around and th ro ugh th ese o bstacles th at the 20 m ile, 20 section co u rse was p lo tted. It was a demand ing cou rse tru ly deserving to be of wo rld ch amp ionship caliber acc o rding to th e riders. The m ajority of the riders h ad nothing but p raise for the course m arking, the cro wd co n trol (in some European events the spec tator cla mbers so close th at he is, in e ffec t , an obstacle himself), the organiza ti o n and co urse marshalling by th e prom ot ing club , th e Rhody Rover s. If th ere was one fau lt (an d this was almost unanimous among t he riders) it was that the sec ti on s were too lo ng. The degree o f difficu lt y was never in q uestion - jus t th e len gth . Rathmell summed up t he fee ling o f the rid ers saying, " Yo u dab on ce at th e botto m o f a sec t io n an d then ride 90% undcr in te nse c oncen tratio n o nly to ta ke ano t he r dab o r two before th e end. .<\11 the hard wor k is for n othing. " New mach inery was of note wi th Montes a showing up with a new six speed 348 Co ta (3 10cc ) for Rathmel! and Martin Lampkin on nex t year's Bult aco (inne r refinemen ts and a new tan k/sea t combinat io n ). Honda showed up with red fram e bikes for its rid ers with 305cc 4· str oke grunt power (" We need a little m ore work on th e engine then she 'll really do tric ks."). Mic k An drews, wi th his pers on al bike stu ck in c u s tom s , was forced to ride a c o n ve n ti o n al st o c k s uspensio ne d Yam aha, but still m an aged to ge t it on. " TIle thro t tle is a wee bi t too quic k an d th e suspe nsio n is to o hard, bu t it 's in teres ting to ge t back on a producti on bike once in awhile. " Ran ger 's Brook le d off t he sections as t he riders lef t the starting area for thei r two trips around the co urse . Six hours plus an hour's grac e period wa s th e t ime limit and, for all riders co nce rne d, there just wasn 't enough time. At Ran ger 's Broo k the spectators were tre ated to a first hand taste of th e in tense concen tratio n the riders put into walking . th e c ourse as well as the p sych in g (whic h subtlely goes on all th e t i m e ) o f th os e vying for the ch am pionship. It was he re the riders spent a full half hour examining the rising, rocky gully dotted with tre e ro ots and an occasional soli d sapling. Don Sweet picked up the first good ride as he to o k a one to the cheers and ovation of the crowd. The section was not forgiving to Charles Co u tar d who crashed and almost seiz ed his engine as the throttle st uc k (his Bult aco was n ot equipped with a kill button ). The fall possibly cost him two full pl aces in th e stan dings, After a num ber o f wo od s sectio ns the riders appe ared at sec tion nine. Yellow Dot Brook, and were greeted wi th a nast y st aircase of rocks th at ro de thro ugh a gull y wit h a tric kle of water ma king th e moss-cov ered roc ks very slick, Of all the sec tions th is was most like a European section and, although only four riders cleaned it the entire day, it was a favorite with riders and spec tators as it brough t ou t the best in th e co m pe ti tio n. Un fo rt unately, foll owin g Yellow Brook were Skunk Cabbage, Leavitt's Fla t a n d Annie 's Saw (sec ti o ns 10-11 -1 2 ) an d they made no friends with 10 and 11 seein g no rider end the sec tion without putting a foot down. American Lane Leavitt tu rn ed in the top per form an ce of the first tou r of the sec tions dropping o n ly 27 m ar ks, but tim e became his enemy in the final go -around, causing him to forsake careful observation of the sections before rid ing them and ris k losing points to make up time. His final ride turned in 40 marks plus 3.3 marks on time loss. R athm ell 's w inn ing M al c olm performance turned in 19 clean sections with only on e mark lost in eigh t more , while the tally for Vesterinen was 17 cleans and nine one mark sections. "I came here to win, " said Rathmell relaxing with a cold drink after the finish of the even t, "and to try to ad d points for a secon d championship . After all that's the na me of the game . It was a bloody good time." Mar tin Lampkin , secon d in the standings before th e day 's even t, re flec ted o n h is Ilat tir e an d a chai n t hat broke twice. "Someday things jus t go righ t and somedays they just go b loody wrong. This was one of those b loody days." • Results 1. Malcolm Rathmell ( M al) 54 .1 . 2. vare Vesterlnen (Bu l) 5 7 . 5. 3. Manue l Sorer -But t e ( Bul) 6 .37. 4 . Ull Kar lson (Mon) 64. 5 . Charles C outard (SuI) 65.9 . 6 . Martin Lampkin (Bul) 66.4. 7 . Benny Sellman (M oo) 68.3. 8. Dave T hor pe (Bul) 68.3. 9 . Lane L eavi tt (Bul) 7 0.3. 10. lVI ck Andrews (Y am ) i 7 2. 1. 11. Joe Guglie lmelll (Ya m). 12 . All en Lamp kin (Bul). 13 . Bob Ho pki ns (Yam) . 14 . Mark Eggar (Hon) . 15. Ja vie r Cucu reua (Bu l). 16 . Do n Sweet {Yam }. 1 7. Marvin He ath ( Bul ). 18. Mi ke Griff it hs (M on). 19. Ge or ge Smith ( Hen ) , 2 0 . Ha rr y Gran t (Yam) . Yrjo Ve ste rinen (Bul) vau lts to second in the st an dings, Manuel So ler-Bulto is guess whose relative. Yea h. you read the pullove r right - our buddies at East picked up the sponsorship without te lling the Lame Turkey. Boo . hiss. Happy day for Malcolm. More points to pad his title lead. The 348cc six-speed works Montesa, Nice . huh? 42