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OBSERVED TRIALS World Championship Observed Trials Series Round 6: France sion and he blamed the disturbance in concentration for his taking a maximum in the very next section. one of the easiest of the loop. Lampkin made up for this mistake, though, with a single dab in section eight, the same section that Colomer took a 5 in. A fired-up Kuroyama made it through for two. o one could make anything of section 12, where the opening climb just got so steep at the top that if you lost momentum, there was no way you were going to make it, though Colomer used the brute power of the Montesa to scale the hazard for a 2. As Lampkin said in his recent interview with Cycle News, the only area the Techno lost out in to the Montesa was in the power department. It showed how right he was in France. The very big hills demanded a powerful motor and, frankly, everyone was struggling except Colomer, Fujinarni on the identical Honda and Hideaki Mitani on another HRC development bike. The last section of the day, as is now expected, was a man-made arena hazard. This was a serninatural section with rocks sunk into an earth banking. and it proved absolutely impossible on Satur- (Left) Marc Colomer rode to an Impressive victory in France, staying consistent despite changing conditions. (Below) An on-fire Kenichl Kuroyama scored a comfortable second, only 10 points behind Colomer. By John Dickinson SENEZ, FRANCE, JUNE 15-16 he opening five rounds of the L~ World Trials Championship focused on a superb duel between Spanish champion-elect Marc Colomer and current World number four Doug Lampkin, who was fully justifying his elevation to the number-one berth on the Ita'lian Beta factory team. Both youngsters comprehensively whipped seven-time champion Jordi Tarres in the opening three rounds. And even though a revitalized Tarres struck back with a welcome win in America, regaining some of his lost ground in the process, the real interest lay in the Colomer-Lampkin battle. The Briton bagged second in Rhode Island to gain a slim, single-point lead over Colomer. But the Spaniard hit right back with a win in Canada to snatch a narrow, two-point title lead from Lampkin, who was demoted again to second. This battle looked set to seesaw excitingly right to the wire, but just as someone once said a week is a long time in politics, the opposite can be said for world trials. Especially by Lampkin. Just one week after leaving Canada, the 10round series resumed in Europe. While Colomer romped away to an impressive victory on his Montesa in France, Lampkin inexplicably slumped to fifth. A paper-thin two-point deficit became an ll-point chasm overnight. And with Tarres in third place in France, behind an on-form Kenichi Kuroyama, Tarres suddenly looks menacing in Lampkin's CT t7 18 rearview mirror, now just eight points adrift in the overall standings. France, amazingly, was not the expected tight-turn-followed-by-6-footrock-step succession of look-alike sections so beloved by European section plotters these days. Instead, it was a succession of look-alike, shale-covered vertical climbs and drops that hovered between the spectacular and the downright dangerous. The trial was staged in Senez, located in southeastern France, a few hours' drive from the Mediterranean town of Nice in a trial-trail-motocross complex. And as always in France, a huge crowd was attracted to the well-run event. The French public has remained faithful to trials even though they have failed to provide a new generation of riders to continue the good work of Thierry Michaud and Philippe Berlatier. Both Michaud and Berlatier, incidentally, turned out and won their respective classes in a "fun trial" staged Friday evening. For Lampkin, the weekend was definitely one of contrasts. On Saturday, he overcame several potentially damaging problems to lead at the end of the first day, having dropped 18 marks over the ยท14 sections, although Colomer and Kuroyama were right behind, just one point off the leader's pace. After cleaning the opening three hazards, along with Colomer and French favorite Bruno Camozzi, Lampkin had the Beta rear shock collapse on him, yet still managed somehow to drag the Techno out of the hazard for a clean. But he then had to wait 15 minutes while mechanics sorted out the faulty suspen-