Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·OBSERVED TRIALS·: . . Round S'• France ..World ChaltponshIp ~ Trills SerIes -----------------------------made a very shaley start - and Italian Stefano DeIlio made it out for threes, as the rest of the stars failed. The first of the river sections proved very difficult, containing many triclcy large rocks which had been strategically positioned by the organizers. No one could do better than struggling" threes on this, as Tarres, Calomer and Ahvala made sure of theirs. Doug Lampkin had fived the fifth and eight sections, and another maximum here had the young English ace thinking he was out of it. He recovered, however, to stay in contact with 26. The remaining stream sub, plus the final two man-made hazards were polished off by most, although Colley had a silly five in the river where he ought to have been at home: Several modifications were made to the sections before Sunday's two loops, and this included shortening the eighth section and removing several of the massive rocks in the ninth hazard. Just as in Spain, with the benefit of a lap's practice behind them, the real contenders instantly got their scores down the first time round on Sunday. Tarres and Colomer both meant business as they completed the loop on 10 and 12 marks - neither rider collected a single maximum. Tarres cleaned the eighth section while Colomer mastered the altered (Left) Jordl Tarres ablIolut81y spanked the rnt as he scored his fourth win of the saason and retook the series point INd. (Below) While Ta".. Improved. MllI'C Colomer fallared. A terrible f1nllllap SllW him fall from contllntlon. By John Dickinson ST. MICHEL DE MAURIENNE, FRANCE, JUNE 24-25 he story so far ... Following Team Fantic rider Tommi Ahvala's urprise win in the opening round in Luxembourg, the list of winners for the following six rounds reads: Tarres, Colomer, Tarres, Colomer, Tarres, Colomer. Fill in the winning name for the French round - the eighth in the 10-round series - and the sequence is naturally completed by Tarres. But it couldn't really be, could it? Bet your bottom dollar it could, as the two Spaniards, now well clear of third-placed Ahv,!la, remain locked together in a tremendous battle for the 1995 World Championship. The battle is guaranteed to go right down to the wire. The French story goes much deeper than another sequential win for Tarres, though. Jordi didn't just win in France, he totally annihilated his opposition, put them to the sword, skinned them alive and hung 'em up to dry with a final lap that must rate as one of the best ever witnessed in a World Championship event. A glance at the final totals is enough: Tarres 32, Colomer 60 ... Enough said. Following the debacle tha t was the Spanish Round, just a week before, an organizational masterpiece was needed from the following French trials, staged in the neat mountain village of St. Michel de Maurienne. And that is exactly what they got. In fact, there were a few accusations that the French went right over the top in their quest for regimented perfection, but as the trial saw a spectacular exhibition of riding over some big-time sections, all official excesses were forgiven. T Parking space was at a premium in the small French town, and the pare ferme was in the local railway tracks with some trucks actually parked across the tracks! The 12 sections, with the now almost universally accepted three laps, consisted of one large eight-sub group, plus two rocky river sections and a final man-made obstacle, as is also becoming the norm, right in the town square. Because of the steepness of the forested hillside where the main group of sections were situated, organizers had bulldozed a wide, flat area at the base of all the sections so that spectators could watch every sub with ease. But while it was a spectator's dream, it was a minder's nightmare, as there were few places to stand safely in order to catch falling bikes and riders if they lost it on the big rock steps. All eight sections were very similar, being variations on steep climbs and drops on the bare bedrock of the hillside. As on the opening day in Spain, there was little to choose between the top 10 finishers. Tarres had a narrow advantage over Colomer but it was nothing as Pons, Ahvala, Lampkin and Camozzi were all pushing hard. On that opening lap, Colomer had been the first to make a mistake - fiving the second section which Tarres cleaned. But the positions were reversed at the fifth trap, where Colomer claimed the only clean as Tarres fived. Of the rest here, only Ahvala and Steve CoUey even made a two - there were a handful of threes, and the rest were maximums. The eighth sub, with a 25-yard nearvertical climb up bedrock, foUowed by a massive step at the end, was a triumph for Spaniard Joan Pons, who fired his big Gas Gas up for a superb single-dab ride. Only big Bruno Camozzi - who

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