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,OBSERVED TRIALS· World Chaltlpiiln$hip'ObServed Trials ~ Round 8: Germany although surprisingly it claimed maximums from popular Spaniard Amos Bilbao and his countryman, reigning European Champion Marcel Justribo. Tarres was also unimpressive with a scrappy , two-mark loss. Lampkin and Colomer cleaned the first three sections before Lampkin was forced to take a 3 up the steep earth banking at the end of section four. And Colomer's clean sheet, the only one remaining. was blotted at the end of the next sub when he lost balance on a slippery downhill and missed a section gate. The sixth sub, which featured several dodgy vertical rock steps, saw only three riders go clean and these were Tarres, Lampkin and Japanese teenager Kenichi Kuroyama. Kuroyama kept his hot streak going with a brilliant clean on the following hazard which twisted and turned several times on a very steep wooded banking. This section brought both Lampkin and Tarres to a halt, while Colomer kept in touch with a hard-earned 2. For the Lampkin family team of Doug. father Martin and cousin John there was a rare lack of organization as they failed to agree as to what Doug needed for the final climb, and a frustrated Doug Lamkin crashed out, as he rushed the step before his three- T;lrre~ (Left) seven-tlme and reigning World Champion Jordi Tarres piloted'a factory Gas Gas to his 60th career win at the Garman World Trials Round In Grossheubach. (BeloW) Tough break: England's Doug lampkin had hoped to cut Into series leader Marc Colomer's points lead In Garmany. A runner-up finish behind Tarres didn't help much. By John Dickinson GROSSHEUBA01, GERMANY, JULY 13-14 ordi Tarres, Spain's seven-time and reigning World Trials Champion, I knows that the 1996 title is now v. beyond his grasp as he lies third behind countryman Marc Colomer and Brit-Doug Lampkin. But Tarres upstaged both young pretenders recently to take the victory in the German round of the series, which was staged in the woods at .Grossheubach near Frankfurt. It was Jordi's 60th GP win, an incredible achievement by any standards, and judging by his form in Germany it almost certainly won't be his last. The 29-year-old Spaniard, written off by so many at the start of the season as being too old to mix it with the young guns, was affected by back problems in the opening rounds, but as the season rolled on, the old confidence and balance has noticeably improved. And in Germany there was no doubt th.at the old master was right on top of his game once more as he overtook first-day leader Lampkin to reach that memorable 60th milestone. 'For Lampkin, trying desperately to make inroads into Colomer's l4-point championship lead with just three rounds of the 10-round series remaining (including Germany), Tarres' win was a massive blow to the Brit's end of season charge. Ideally, Lampkin wanted to win J 28 with Tarres second and Colomer third (or lower) thus closing down his Montesa rival's lead by at least five marks. And the plan was right on course after the first day's single lap of 14 sections. Tarres then squeezed into a narrow lead after Sunday's opening loop and then brilliantly blitzed the final circuit to run out the winner by a massive 13 points. A disappointed Lampkin dropped a couple of 5s on "iffy" sections and in fact almost lost third to Colomer. The German Trial followed the worryingly predictable section style where each of the 14 subs looks exactly like the previous one - no matter where it is in the world- with a succession of tight turns and rock steps laid out almost Indoor fashion. Even the natural hazards in the woods ended up being doctored so that they looked similar to the man-made sections that constituted numbers one, two, three and 14. On Saturday, following heavy overnight rain, conditions were very slippery and they got worse as the red mud was carried on to the rocks by spinning rear wheels. The sections proved a real test as it was impossible to be inch-perfect as bikes fishtailed all over during acceleration. It certainly favored the guys. who ride on instinct rather than the pure technical wizards. The opener was not much more than a joke actually, consisting of a few rocks dumped by the side of the road, minute allowance ran out. "We really screwed that up!" Lampkin agreed later. He then fived the following long, steep, twisting hazard but no great damage was done here as no one bettered a 3 in the gripless conditions. Lampkin and Kuroyama then both had a stroke of luck on the ninth when they were both docked five marks for brushing a marker flag. The incidents were witnessed by FIM official Jean Marc Crumiere who later, ,somewhat controversially, removed the penalties from the results - without the riders having to lodge official protest. Tarres then jumped in with a similar query and subsequently had two marks pulled from his score card. It was a move that' would guaranteed trouble all through the following day's action as competitors argued almost every mark dropped in every section in the hope of getting the penalty removed. Back to Saturday. The 13th sub was certainly different from the rest as it contained an almost vertical climb up an old quarry face and featured a kind of tree house platform constructed halfway up to catch anyone having to bail out. It turned out to be not as fierce as it first looked but only five cleans were recorded arid they were for Tarres, Lampkin, Frenchman Bruno Camozzi, 16-year-old Japanese HRC rider Takahisa Fujinami and rising young German star Andreas LettenbichJer. At the end of the opening day's play, Lampkin held a narrow lead over Tarres· with the scor~ just 16 to 17 with Colomer on 20 being shadowed by the on-form Kuroyama. Sunday saw conditions dramatically changed as the rain gave way to strong