Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1996 01 03

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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Girona, Spain omer takes two (Left) Spanish National Champion Marc Colomer rode his factory Montesa Cota to his second Indoor win of the season. (Right) Brit Steve Colley was masterful in Glrona, but missed the win by a single point. Kuroyama who was introduced into the arena first. "1 just asked which order we were going in and they said Kenichi goes first and the rest of you draw straws," said Lampkin. Initially nervous, Kuroyama fived the opening two sections, which were the Hipercor "cheeses" and the Coke bottles, before pulling himself together with a clean in the third and then making it to the summit of the Castle Fortuna for two dabs. He did not know it at the time, but this would be the only time that anyone would reach the top; all subsequent attempts resulted in crashing fail ures. By John Dickinson GIRONA, SPAIN, DEC. 2. he indoor arena trials season is now in full swing in Europe, and the elite few competitors who are lucky enough to be on the exclusive invitation lists are currentlyon a non-stop round of driving or flying thousands of miles, constantly checking calendars and calculating costs to see if they can squeeze in an extra event as organizers constantly switch dates, venues, towns and even countries as this exciting new form of twowheeled entertainment moves ever onward. Trials-mad Spain staged two indoor events in one weekend last month, and both trials boasted capacity 601)0 crowds in their respective sports halls. On Friday evening there was a trial at Valencia which was hosted by Jordi Tarres' brother Francis, a relative newcomer on the promotional circuit who has stepped in with no-frills, cut-price events that obviously go down well with the fans. On Sunday evening, the mighty Esedos Promotional Organization staged one of their premier events at Girona, dubbed the 8th Trial Indoor Ciutat de Girona. In France, artistic nation that it is, indoors tend to feature heavily Jand- T scaped, natural-type sections with rocks and trees that are ridden slowly and artistically. The Spaniards, with their bullfighting temperament, like the indoor trials to feature short, sharp, alIaction artificial sections that favor a fast, exciting approach. To be konest, indoors is a pretty brutal sport in that there a.re no second chances. The six (or sometimes eight) riders get one chance and maybe only four sections on the qualifying lap, and if you aren't in the first three you are out, showered, changed and on your way home aftFr less thanĀ· five minutes riding. Imagine that after a 2000-mile drive! Reigning Indoor World Cup Champion Marc Colomer had been the man in form at Valencia, taking his factory Montesa Cota to a narrow two-mark lead over this year's International "find," Japanese rider Kenichi Kuroyamao The scores were Colomer 6, Kuroyama 8 and seven-time World Champion Jordi Tarres third on 12. In Girona, Colomer, Tarres, Kuroyama and Colley were lined up against the spectacular Beta duo of Doug Lampkin and Amos Bilbao. Lampkin had been out practicing in Spain with rninder (and dad) Martin Lampkin for two (Above) seven-time World Champion Jordl Tarres couldn't match the pace of Colomer and Colley, and ended up third overall. (Right) Finn Tomml Ahvala gave the new Fantle section an Impressive debut, finishing sixth In only his second ride on the bike: weeks and was ready to return home following the trial. These six were joined by late entries Tommi Ahvala, out on the '96-modeJ Fantic for only the second time, and Spaniard Joan Pons, who remained as poker-faced as ever throughout the contest. Girona had a stadium packed with 10 sections, seven "normal" indoor hazards such as the Coke bottles and the Fortuna cigarette packets, plus a high jump and two "race" section where competitors line up head-to-head. So as the lights dimmed and the atmosphere rocketed, it was tiny rider Kuroyama completed his opening six-section lap with a score of 15 before he was joined by the ever-popular Bilbao. But Amos was strangely subdued on the night and his 21 total was lackluster. Both riders then tackled the high jump and cleaned it wi th ease before Kuroyama stuffed Bilbao on both of the race section to finish on 15 with Amos definitely down and out on 23. Next in were Lampkin and his partner for the races, Pons. Lampkin started pff just like Kuroyama and Bilbao with fives in the first two hazards, while Pons received a huge cheer for managing the

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