Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Lampkin's win thrilled his hometown crowd. (Right) Steve Colley (left) and Ja rvis battle closely. Colley ended up fourth. (Below) In one section, Takahisa Fujinami provided plen ty of action when he became disorientated and went the wrong way over an obs tacle, resulting in a big crash. Saturday' s all-star lineup was lampk in, Colomer, Colley, Kuroyama, Takahisa Fujinarni, Amos Bilbao and David Cobos. Also included wa s Jarvis, who qualified with a brilliant ride on Frida y night. There was hi gh ex ci t e me n t r ight from th e s ta rt o n Saturday as you ng Spaniard Cobos m ade a dram atic entra nce, rid in g a huge nose-w heelie across the stage. He failed, however, to get the back end d own and crashed bigtim e, falli ng off th e edge of th e stage nose- first onto the arena floor, lu cky to escape w itho ut serious injury. Jarvis was th e fir st to ride the sections, and the Scorpa rid er almost made the sectio ns look too easy. A sin gle dab on the mighty stack of railroad ties wa s followed by thr ee on the tree trunks. He th en clea ned the concrete pipes confidently, made it over the difficult fourth section for a one, and cleaned the fifth se ct io n, which w a s compri sed of a Ca terpillar dump truck and w ha t is claimed to b e th e ta ll e st t ire in th e world, a Mich elin fro m a giant ea r thmover. Onl y a ma ximum on the newly constructed wat erfall spoiled a round that made the sections loo k easy. Jarvis' lap of 10 wa s a good target. This w as d eceptive, th ough, as th e following riders pro ved straig h t away. Cobos, a pparen tly recovered fro m his ov erdrama tic en trance, fived th e opening tw o ha zards, cleaned the third to a tremendous roar of applause, and eventually finished on 17. Kur oyama was out next and proved very disappointing. He never really came to grips wi th any of the sections, and it looked as thou gh he would never qualify for the final. Fujinami, on the HRC-badged Mon tesa, also rev ealed a lack of match practice and a lack of indoor experience, and qualifying also looked beyond his ability . It certainly was when he took the wron g route and, as the crowd gasped , went straight over the mon ster tire the wrong way a nd dropped 13 fee t vertically. Fuji nami collapsed over the handlebars, hurting his ch es t and head bu tti n g th e front wheel. The rear-suspension linkage on the Montesa just exp loded and "Fu jiGas" wa s ou t. . "FUji need s a map! Wh at the hell was he d oing ?" sai d Lampkin in disbeli ef after watching the cras h. Bilbao, o nc e th e darling o f th e cr owds, was quite simply a big disap- pointm ent. End of story. So it was down to the b ig thre e . Th e crowd greeted Colley "Mr. Showman" - with a huge cheer, and the Manx ace looked like he mean t busin ess as he eased th rough the first fou r sectio ns for just five marks. Th en he mad e a typical Colley mistake by missing a marker flag o n th e "easy" fifth sect ion; this so nearly cost him a pla ce in the final. Onl y a brilliant dab on the waterfall saved the da y. Eve n th en , Colley did his best to put him self ou t with an inexplicable, crazy crash on the final race section wh en he just threw the Ga s Gas off a metal cage and its rear wheel explod ed on landing. As a resul t, he fo rfeite d a n ad di ti ona l five marks . "My brain went," Colley said. "I was so pumped, I just couldn't control myself. What do yo u want me to say? " On to th e bi g tw o. Bet w een th em, Colomer and Lam pkin ha ve " dominated th e w orld scene for the last two years and the con test shows no sign of easing. Colomer came out and was immediately in trouble wi th a big loo p-ou t on the opening section. And when he made a big mis take on the following tree secti on, an ups et was in the ca rds . Bu t Col om er p u lled him self together bril liantly to drop just one mark, and his rid e w as crowne d w it h th e fir st-ever cl ean of the n ew wa t erfa ll. H e w a s rewarded wi th a hu ge roar of applause . Lampkin ca me next, and it look ed like d eja vu as he, too, mes sed up the first section completely, screaming at his minder, cous in Jam es Lamp kin, to "Get off!" as Jam es made a grab for the bike as Doug att empted to rescue the impossib le. But Lam pkin mad e a tremendous recovery, d ropping just one mark on the follow in g ha zard b efore th e c row d swept him th rou gh the rem aining four sections clean on a solid wall of noise. So th e final lin eup was a reprieved Coll ey, Jarvis - w hose earlier ride had actually been much better than had initially been thou ght - and Col om er and Lampkin. him and roared him through th e next two sections clean , whil e Colomer stu ttered and dabbed each of them. Then , just like last year, the Spaniard failed to co n quer o n th e s heer steps; Lampkin cleaned and was back in front. As the cro wd yelled its d elight, Ma rtin lampki n punched the ai r and cried, 'This is what they've come to see!" And he was absolutely right. With both riders now on peak form, they cracked the waterfall with brilliant rides, and then both s oa re d o ver the high jump. Lampkin had a three-point lead and only the two races to come. All he had to do was finish them and, even if Colomer won th em both, Lampkin was still going to win. Colomer did win both races, but Lampkin fou ght it every inch of th e way . As th ey landed from the final jump o~ the huge quarter pipe, Colomer edged it by the thickn ess of the front tire, but Lampkin nonetheless took the overall win to draw first blood in the 0 Ind oor World Championship. AM Indoor Trials World Champ ionshi p Sheffield, England Results: January 3, 1997 Colley never got his act together and fin ishe d a ve ry di sappointing fourth . Ja rvis wa s very co n fi d e n t a n d full y d eserv ed his ev en tu al third pla ce, but the rea l actio n wa s for firs t, and neith er of the riders in contention disappointed. Co lo me r lost just' one on th e opening section. Lampkin fived it again. . To have Lam p kin five d own a t th e s ta r t wa s the Br itish crowd's wors t nightmare, but they go t ri ght behind HEAT ONE: I. Doo g Lam pkin ( Be t); 2, Gra ham Jarvis (Sea); 3. Marc Colome! (Mon); 4. Steve Colley (GG); 5. Kenich i Kuroyama (Bet); 6. Davi d Cobos (G-G); 7. Amos Bilbao (G-G); 8. Takahisa Fujinami (Ho n). FINA L: 1. Doug Lampkin (Bt!-t) 7; 2. Mar c Co lo rner (Ma n) 8; 3. Gra ham Jarvis (Sco) 15; 4. Steve Co lley (G-G) 17. WO RLD CHAMPION SHIP IN D O O R TRIA LS SERIES (After 1 of 7 round s): 1. Doug Lampkin (20/1 win) ; 2. Marc Colorner (1 7); 3. Graham Jarvis (15); 4. Stev e Co lley (13); 5. Kenichi Kuro ya ma (11); 6. David Co bos (10); 7. Am os Bilbao (9). Upcoming Rounds: Round 2 - Koblenz. Germany,January 10 Round 3 - Helsinki, Finland. Jan uary 31 Graham Jarvis .and Kenichl Kuroyama-.There ' were complaints that the take-off ramp was all. wrong; but Martin Lampkin. o rqa nizer of the ' event and loop designer. was adamant .thai it . : '!' Doug Lampkin is undefeated in the ,history Was the same one that had been used for'the of the Sheffield indoor trial - he has won all' previous two , years, Perhaps the most dramatthree of the events in his native Yorkshire, ic of all, however, was -Takahisa Fujinami:s Lampkin's bike is s till a semi-factory; standard frightening drop off the giant Michelin,tire. said .Beta Techno, as he is still waiting to receive -to be the largest tire in the world, The suspenthe full factory machine that he will ride in the sion bolts on the rear links ripped the lugs right . off the Montesa's swingarm.,Steve'CoIley suf'outdoor World Championship in 1998. ' ' fered from several big' get-offs: the first com- , Marc Coi o";er w~sthe o'n ly rider on a full , ing on Friday night when he crashed backward works '98,factory bike, His Montesa bristled , off the' waterfall. 'Then on Saturday he looped , . 'with neat factory mods such 'as a carbon-fiber . on orie sec tion and 'then crashed off the quarairbox, trick rear brake. super-tuck forks and ter pipe in his .race with Graham ,J arvis. and ' , many other one-off pieces', The engine' output . Jarvis had to drag the bike off the trapped Colo .eppeers to have bee n softened slightly in ley: "I [ustdon't know how t hey.don't hurt readiness for the new "nonstop" World Cham- themselves .. .said a conce rned Martin lamppionship rulechange, ' ' . . , - kin as tie surv eyed the mayhem.' ' .Brieflv•.... The Sheffield indoor trial featured ~h~t. proved to be a rough loop for most riders. as was : evidenced by the many crashes over the weekend. The high jump causedparticular difficulty on Friday. with Marc Golomersuffering from a'crash landing on his' back wheel. as did World nu"';be r s ix 'D a ~ l d Cob o s was rumored to be.iswi tc hinq Iacto ries to the' "new- Bultaco. but 'this project now appears to be several 'months away from reality: and . · the promising tee n-aqer is sticking with Gas Gas. ' . . " 00 0'\ 0'\ ..... 27

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