Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

OBSERVED TRIALS W ORLD C AMPIONSH OBSER H IP VED TRIALS SERIES Round 10: Thalheim G any , erm Takahlsa Fujlnaml took the fi rst ove ra ll victory of his World Tri als ca reer . fi ni shing fourth and first over the two-day even t. He finished fourth In the ch ampionship behind count ryman Kenichi Kuroyama. , liiiiiiiliiiiiiiiJiii;l;iii~~ iii By John Dickinson THALHEIM, GERMANY, SEPT. fr7 oug Lampkin, hav ing tied up hi s fir st World Champio nship the previo us week in the Czec h Republic, was virtu ally ab le to rid e th e 10th a nd fin a l round of the 1997 s eries as a la p o n honor. Like w ise, d eposed Champio n Ma rc Colom er was eq u a ll y se cu re in second . And so, the really serious riding was len to the tussl e for third- place hon ors. It was an intriguing con test be tween the two exciti ng young Japa nese r iders Kenichi Ku royarna and Takah isa Fujina m i. They a re great friends when they aren' t bat tlin g for trials honors, and the con test was a good one. Their rid ing styles co uld n't be more contrasti ng . Kuroyama, a former bicycle tri als world cha mpion, is very precise , very technical and always tries to be in tot al control. Fujinami is a yea r younger but has a more physical build an d his riding style benefits from this : He tends to hit things fast and straight. The Europeans haven't named him FUji-Gas for nothing. . The trial, staged in the town of Thalheim in eastern Germany. was fairly easy by World Champions hip s tan- 1) 26 ~~:~iii*.";;~;;5~;;;:~~;;;;:;~;;5g~r~0~sta rt,sub inthen atown ~i Cbut the after OnfidenCe five i a slig htly wobbly W n~ on the final man-made d ards, alt ho ugh wi th the title settled the re was no real need to go overboard, and it certainly gave the she ll-shoc ke d lowe r -ord e r p o ints chasers so me heart to be able to log a few cleans ove r the weekend. It was staged mainly on wooded hillsid es , wit h the opening co u ple o f sec tions being man-m ade obstacles , w hile the ma jority o f th e 14 haza rd s were a comb ina tion of climbs an d d ro ps io the woods w he re there were slip pery tree Toots, rocks and loose-earth ascen ts to kee p the competitors alert . O n the openi ng d ay, Lampkin was reall y fo cused , de te rmined that the wo rld should know that he was number . one and that he wa sn't going to have a slack week end of just going through the motions. Despi te the fact that he started with a five over the opening rock pi le (w he re lillie-known Spanish national rider Marc Freixas was best, with a o ne) the Beta number one rip ped through the opening lap fo r a score of ju st ni ne, deaning 10 of the rema ining 13 sections. T his was enoug h to lead the field , if only by a single ma rk ahea d of Colorner, who took a five on the fourth section - as did Fu jinami and Brit Graham Jarvis on the lon e Seorpa, and Stev e Colley, who looked very comforta ble on the secti ons , eas ing ar ound without dropping a single five. Kuroyama looked to have the early lead sewn u p with a ride that saw him saw him drop down the lead erboard . On th e s econd loop, there was no ho lding Lampki n bac k, w ho gave a. virtually fau lt less d em o nstrat io n of p ure mach ine con trol to circulate for just four marks, No one could live wi th this so rt of fo rm an d he wen t o n to take the 20 championship points - no t that he needed them - on a total of just 13 fo r th e da y, a mi g h ty 10 a head of ru nn er-u p Co lomer. Behind th e Big Two, th o u g h , th e Japanese w ere ha ving a real knockd own fig h t, and jus tice was p robab ly d one at the end of the d ay as the first four riders ho me finis hed in exactly the sa me order as the World Championship ended . But for an a mazing third time this year, Kur oyarna and Fujinami managed to end th e day on exactly the same n u m ber o f marks lost - 26 - and they were joined by Steve Colley. The result was mercifully ea sy to so rt out on the most-cleans tie breaker, with the order d escending thro ug h 15, 14 a nd 13 cleans, respectively. It was a good day fo r the Brits, a s Jarvis managed to forc e th e Scorpa into s ixt h ah ead of Jord i Tarres and Amos Bilbao, giving th em th ree rid ers in th e top six - a fact not lost on eith er the Brits or th e Spaniards, with th oughts o f th e Trial 'd es Nations now taking p riori ty. Sunday saw Lampkin and Col omer start ou t seriously enough, but mixed in with th e co nce nt ra tio n was an end -ofterm feel that had the tw o rivals lau ghing at one an other as each managed to founder in the evil-smelling, stagnant pool tha t the seco nd section was built around .: Lampkin so mehow man aged to lose 14 and Colomer 15 on th eir respectiv e opening loo ps. Setting the pace, though , w as the h ug ely tale nted but equally fru s trati ng- to -wa tc h C olley, w ho breezed around for just six. This proved to be just a single mark better than Fujinami, w hile Kuro yama was ri ght in the re o n eig h t, as was seven- time World Champion Tarr es, p u tting together one of his best efforts of the yea r in wha t wo uld be his last-ever World Championship Trial. Co lley th en wen t o n to prove jus t why he drives his su pporters to di stracti o n, d ropp ing 13 on his seco nd loo p while hi s rivals vir tually all d ro p ped down to single-figu re scores. Thus Colley ended his weekend with a fifth and seven th w hen he co uld just as easily have landed a thi rd and a win. Lampkin and Colomer managed to drag their acts to g e th e r to end the ir weekend with scores of th ree and five, resp ectiv el y, b ut the re w e r e b e tt e r. Bruno Camozzi came from nowhere to s ig n o ff from a disappoin ting se as on with a respect able fo u rth o n th e day. Tarres sa id adios with a seven and a popular podium spo t - a nearly perfect way to end h is caree r. Up front, it was the Kuroyama /Fujinami show all th e way. Kuro yama . d idn' t do a lot wrong as he posted a three-dab ride, but Fujinami wa s nearly perfect and hi s remarkable single-dab rid e under this great pressure ga ve the teen-ager not only his firs t leg win of his caree r but also the overall victory. And there was no one happier for him than his friend Kuroyam a - although Kuro yarna was in the enviable po sition of having staved off his cou n try man to end the ye ar in third place in the cha mpions hip . T h e two Gas G as r id ers, yo u ng Spaniard David Cobos a nd Colley , split Lampkin and Co lomer, in the ir u nu sual p o s it ion s of fi ft h a nd e ig h th, wh ile Spa nia rds Ma rc Cattla and Ga b rie l Reyes completed the top 10. '" Germ an World Trial Thalheim, Germ any Results : september 6-7, 1997 (Round 10 of 10) DAY 1: 1. IJou g Lam p kin ( Bet); 2. Marc Colome(Mon); 3. Kcn ichi Kuroyi\m.l ( Bet); 4. TwhlSd Fup.romi (Hon); 5. Sieve Coney (G-C); b. Graham Jarvis (500); 7. [oed i TalT'L"S (C·G); 8. Amos Bilbao (G--C); 9. Tommi Ah val a (Mo n); 10. Dav id Cobos (G-C) ; 11. Brun o Ca mozzi (G--C); 12. Marcel Ju!otribo (C-G); 13. Mar c Fmxa!o (G-G); 14. CabrWol Reyes (Man); 15. Man: u ttld (G-Gl. DAY 2: 1. Tdkd hi !>d Fu jinam i (Hou): 2. Kl"n ich i Kuruya ma ( Be t) ; 3. Jo r di Tarre-, (G- G) ; 4. Bru no Ca moui (C...G); 5. Doug l..ilrnplin (Bct); 6. David Coece (G-G>; 7. Stt'V

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