Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Tarr es' team , prep ar at ion and backup are second to non e. And no expense will be spared from the Gas Gas budget in or der to get their fourth World Cha mp ionship an d Tarres' eighth. No one can ride defensively like Tarres when it is necessary, and no one can read a trial like he can . And no one puts in more effort, more p ract ice, more thought or m ore desire . Bu t in 1996 will it be enough? ca t io ns, Ah va la s trug g led w ith an eng ine tha t never prod uced the power he w as looking for until late in the season. Consistent he is, but Ah val a has never really thr eatened to rep rod uce his '92 winning form, and he starts '96 without regular friend and minder, Wood y H ole. A new main m an h as ye t to be fou nd. THIS A SLICE British bias here, maybe, moving "O u r Doug" up to third , but I reckon it is justified. European Champion in '9 3, si xth in the world in '94 and fourth last year, Doug Lampkin remains firml y on the move. Late- sea son brinkmanship over a Beta/Gas Gas deal for '96 brought him the slot he sought - as Beta's official factory number one - and this makes him feel much more comfortable regarding machine setup. The shoulder injury received at last vear's Trial des ations was a real ~orry, but after a long layoff, Lampkin is now confidently tackling the Indoor Trials e vents and is looking forward to the World Championship Series. Like most young riders, Lampkin is happiest in technical sections and on big-time steps. And he has a score to settle in the sandstone confines of his home venue at Hawkstone Park. A 14th-place "d isaster effectively ruined his title challenge la st season before it had really begun. He gets his chance for revenge earl y this year when the former GP motocross venue again hosts the British event. And yes, Doug will again b e em ployi ng h is famous father to do the minding for him thi s season. But befor e you criticize Mart' s vociferous efforts too ha rd , ask you rself th is questio n how m a n y tim e s were you World Champion? No PRO BLEM fitting To m m i up Ahva la with n um ber four . T he big Finn is su p erconsistent, "h a v in g fi n ish ed in the top fo u r for th e la st six years - and he beat T arres for the Championship in '92 and gave Aprilia their first World Championship title. Last year was not a happy on e for Ahvala at Fantic, yet he still finished the year in third . In '94, his first year on the Italian marque after Aprilia pulled out of trial s, he finished as runner-up to Tar res, mounted on th e ungainly K-Roo. But last y e a r, on th e new ."Section " which was virtually built to his specifi- IS THE first really dif ficult se le ction . Former European Champion Joan Pons is a very talented, very s o li d rider, but it appears that he is stuck in a rut that holds him just short of achieving a real top-three sh ot in '96. Yet he signed off at the end of last sea so n with a str ing of third-place finishes, so the ability is not in doubt. Pons, whose almost-fixed poker face doesn't endear him to too many fans, is looking to a change of machine to give him a boost. Having been on Gas Gas for three seasons, a change of mount might make him bu zz. But the 330 Gas Gas he rode last year was su p e rb ly tuned and he rode it well . Pons contested the Italian National Championship last season and was beaten by Tommi Ahvala, so maybe they will spark off each other, now that they are both Fantic mounted. A straight talker, Pons described the entire ' 95 season as "shit" when interviewed at the last World Round in Finland, so I hope the '96 series is better... T HE TRIALS s ensa ti on of '95, fr e shfaced Keni chi Kur o y am a starts '96 with mu ch greater expecta tions w e igh in g on h is sligh t ly b u i lt s houl ders. Kuroyama, a former World Bicycle Trials Cha mpion, wowed the crowds las t sea son with his b icycle-based techn ique s, wh ich proved devastati ngly effective at tim es. Tenth in the World Champio ns hi p Series las t yea r - an d seco n d in th e European Ch ampi onsh ip - Kuroyam a is seen by some to be a title cha llenger thi s year. But brill iant th ough he can be, Kuroyama still h as to ach ieve real consisten cy to be a season- lo ng ti tl e threat. Kuro yama is not afraid to do his own thing and ride his own trial. which is a big plus. But on the other hand, there will be pressures this year that didn't exist last season. I expect Kuroyama to certainly move up from 10th, but there almost certainly will be hiccups along the way. Watch out for the antics of his minder dad, a former traffic cop and past Japanese National Trials Champion himself. S TEVE C OLL EY is a rider of immense ta lent - talent w hich h e has so far failed to co n vert in to results that do him justice . Fo r tu na te ly liillil;iIIiill~~J the 24-yea r - 1lIi:::=~ old from the Isle of Man, home of the famou s TT ra ces, see ms to be a slow burner and, although a t an age when many ar e burned ou t, Colley still sees himself as an up- and-com er. Coll e y won th e British N ation al Ch ampionship in '93 and disappeared totall y und er the s ha do w of Doug Lampkin in '94, only to re-emerge last year as British Champion again. A season on Gas Ga s, with superb backup from British importer John Shirt, got the Colle y confidence back up after a terrible year with Beta, and he is look ing forward to '96 with relish. Coll ev is a brilliant Indoor Trials rid er and he rates crowd-pleasing performan ce s over re sults. Give him a bone-dry course with mega-grippy steps and he can be electric. The downside is that he hates wet, slippery, muddy sections. Colley's form is erratic, but when his head is on straigh t, a World Round win is easily possible. W E ARE INTO the realm of old hand-\~s. you ng gun now, but wil y Italian veteran Donato Miglio s t ill look s t o be a good bet. In hi s 30th yea r like Tarres, quiet man Miglio still flows on a trials bike. Sixth in '95 sho cked many who thought he was over the hill, and a top10 finish in '96 looks very possible once again. Miglio has switched from Gas Gas to Beta this yea r and with an eye to the future has tied up a development role with Beta that should keep him in work for three vears. Miglio 's strength is h is week -in , week-out consistency. He is not flashy, simply effective to the po in t of be in g invisib le. Onlv at th e en d of a trial d o people say, ':1 see Migli o is up th ere again. Amazi ng!" the nod. [ustribo has undoubted talent but never reall y looks hungry eno ugh for success. Th e incredibly thin, ta ll, Narit a, on the other hand, has just suffered a d isastrous season and is eager to show that he is not past his prime . Playi ng second fidd le to Kenic hi Kuroyama di d not come easil y to Narita, who was the first gen uine Japanese con ten der on the World Championshi p scene, and late last season he declared th at he would come back more determined than ever in '96. Narita is a technical ride r with good machine-dev elopment sk ills, and he is certainl y not returnin g to Eur ope jus t to make up the number s. Narita, the former Honda work s p il ot and World number six, will be 25 this year and still has plenty of riding left in him. A BIT OF A wild card at number 10 , but there are several good reasons for g iving Graham Jarvis and -Scorpa a ch an ce. Firstly , Jarvis is often totally overlooked as a rider, having lived in the shadow of his countrymen Doug Lampkin and Steve Colley throughout his adult career. But on his day he has beaten both riders - fairly and squarely - and nothing gives him more pleasure. Last year' s Scorpa was certainly not "the best machine for ach ieving World Championship success, but with the radical new "Easy" model. both Graham and the small French factory now are looking to kick some butt. Qu iet man Jarvis has }Vorked hard at developing the new Scorpa and a newfound confidence is easy to spot. H is Indoor " disas ter" performan ce at Sheffi eld is n ot a fai r indicator of his form on the "Easv," as he is a nov ice on the Ind oor scene.'Ou tdoors, it is a different story and it is fair to say that Gr aham will shock a few esta blis hed stars this season. I T IS TEMPTING to go for a y o u n g contender like European Ch am p io n Marcel [ustrib o here, but agai n, experience just gets 13

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