Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

dit to, with the whole circus intro d uced by Jam es Dean and Maril yn Monroe. It ju st does n't happen. Don 't ask me why. But odd ly eno ug h, wh at d oes guarantee wall-to-wall crowds - and ha rdcore supercross fans may find this hard to swallow - is an indoor trial. Yes, the indoor ve rsion of the ji ve , th e n fi ve game, is a wh ole new minor entertainme nt industry in itself, a fact that baffles even the experts on the subject as virtually nothin g is as unwatchable as an outdoor trial. Great for the riders, rubbish for the spectators. So what the hell h appens when you take the feet -up boys indoors? What ha ppens, of course, is that you ge t a first -class light show with all the usu al stadium razzmatazz - fireworks, la se r lights, rock m u s ic, d r y ice, a n emcee - the wo rks. Plus, of cou rse, the ve ry cream of th e w orld' s trials aces s tru tting their stuff on d rama tic, very car efully crea ted sections with a built-in speed element to crea te the necessary tension and d rama. The real key, tho ugh, is the top riders. There is only room for a very elite fe w who possess very s p ecia l skills. Unlike su percross, in which you need "also-rans" to make up th e numbers, there is no room at all for would-bes, wannabes, has-beens, or anyone else in indoor trials. You can either hack it or you can 't, and that's that. Con sequently, it is pretty da m ned hard to break into this tight-knit little community wh o make a nice livin g from their specialized work. The secre t to getting the invites is suc cess in the World Championship Trials Series. Finis h in th e top 10 in th e world, and yo u ' re halfway there. To p six in th e fin al s tan di ngs and you've cracked it! Gu aranteed invites to cash in vi rtuall y every w eekend through th e winter. And you don't even get cold or wet. It has bee n said, several times actually, that all the World Championship Trials Series means to the ride rs is a wa y to ge t gra de d into the indoors so th at they can make so me mon ey. And why not? Th e hotbed of th e indoo r cir cus is Spa in, with Fra nce and Ital y following close behind. O ther countries like German y an d Fin land take the odd dates, a n d mos t even ts p lay to crowd s b etween 3000 and 14,000 fans . (European stadiums are m uch smaller than the h uge arenas in the Un ited Sta tes .) Britain, the spiritual ho me of trials, body English and all that, has never staged a sing le international indoor event. Spai n and France are the major players, and bo th countries favor different formats for their events. The Spaniards go for very man-made sections like concrete Coca-Cola bottles, large wooden dgarette packs - quite handy for ad ve rrising, b y th e way - and a generally uncluttered stad iu m. They like lots of air time, bi g, bi g steps and plenty o f high-speed, head-to-head action. The French, meanwhile, are a much mo re civilized lot, and prefer their arenas lan dscaped wit h sections constructed from natural mat erials requiring a mor e skillful, more exa ct approach. The recent Tolou se Indoor in France was typical o f th e Fr en ch approa ch , with a beau tifu lly landscaped Mediter. ra nean scene fill in g th e center of the SOOO-seat sports hall, which was packed to the roof at $25 a seat. The entry list was as good as it gets, with World Champion [ordi Tarres topping the bill on his factory Gas Gas. Tarres was backed up by the remainder of the top five in the world - minus Donato Miglio. Fantic's Tommi Ah vala, new Montesa rider Marc Colomer and Gas Gas rising sta r Joan Pons were on hand . Ad ded to th is lis t were Amos Bilbao aboard h is new Bet a, Italia n Beta ace Diego Bosis, teenage Span iard sen sation Marcel Justribo aboard a Beta, and Brits S teve Coll e y and Do u g ie Lampki n. La m p k in w as m ount e d aboa rd hi s fa m ilia r Screenart Beta, w hile Colley w as aboard a brand -n ew , factory Gas Gas. Actually, Tolouse wasn' t quite typ ical in as much as there was an elemen t of political intervention by the Fre nch Federation, who w anted some home representation. Hence, brothers Bruno and Christophe Camozzi wer e drafted in at very s h or t n otice . This crea te d anothe r p roblem as , acc ording to the specialized rul es, there were now too ma ny riders. A five-rider sudden-death run-off over just three sections would thin the field. [ust ribo, Bosis and eit he r Lampkin or Colley would have to com pete against the two Frenchmen. Colley, an indoor ace, cou ld not believe it wh en he was told the ru les showed that it was he who would have to cha nce his arm. This pu t Colley into a real mood, yet it was one which brought about a very positive ou tcome : Colley absolutely routed th e o the r four r ider s in the knock-out, and then went straight out over the full seven-seetion cou rse to set a six-p o int target whi ch no one - n ot even Tarres - could get near. Colley wa s so pumped before the main th at sweat poured down his fac e in riv ers, su ch was his acute mental state. The three-man final included Colley, Tarres and Ahvala, and proved to be a classic showdown. After four of the six sec tions, all three rider s were square at 12 marks ap iece. Colley was riding like a hero, but a mi ghty over- the-ba rs crash in wh at proved to b e an impo s s ible sectio n lo oked n asty , and severely jarred h is wris ts on impact. Throu gh th e final t w o h a z ard s, Ahvala lost just enou gh confidence to fall behind the battling Gas Gas duo who rose to, and above, the occasion to brilliantly clea n the final pair of traps. This set up a head- to-h ead run-off ove r th e fin a l-s ection race . Colley s im p ly cou ldn't contain hi mself and jum ped the start. On the restart, ther e was to be no d enying the su pe rcool Tar res, as h e showed jus t why he is a six-time World Champion . It was a brill iant n ight, w ith the crowd happy to cheer Tarres' win, but th e fans cheered even louder for the gallant loser who sim ply rode his heart oot. ~ (Top) Six-t ime World Champ io n Jordi Tarres had the coolest head and nabbed the Tolouse victory.' (Above left) Joan Pons competed aboard a big-bore Gas Gas JT35, but found the big motor a bit much on the stadium obstacles. (Above) Marc Colome. loo ked co mfortable aboard his new .Montesa, but was elim inated bef ore t he final rou nd. 19

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