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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127928
OBSERVED TRIALS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP INDOOR TRIALS (Left) Betamounted Doug Lampkin continues to top the best in the world with his seco nd win of the Indoor Trials World Champion season in as many rounds: (Below) Spaniard Marc Colomer finished just two marks behind Lampkin in the final to take the runner-up spot behind the British rider for the . second time this seaso n. A a ~ 20 By John Dickinson KOBLENZ,GERMANY, JAN. 11 ou g Lampkin proved once agai n tha t he rem ain s the man to beat in in te rna ti o n a l tr ia ls as the y ou ng British rid er offici a lly s tar te d a ' 98 in d oo r seaso n w inning streak with his second win of the season over arc hrival Marc Colomer, at round two of the series in Germany. The cr~wd in Koblenz was at ma ximum capacity, although at 4000 this is a mo destly sized venue. Th e format for the evening's event was a lap divided into seven separate sections plus a single man -made raceco u rse . As in previous years, there were seve ral "novelty" sections, w hich inclu ded a swing-bri dge a nd severa l s uspen ded .logs, b oth of which seemed to necessitate some bit of lu ck to conquer. Th e riders are qu ite happy about these h azards in an ord ina ry ind oor event , but Lampkin an d Colomer weren't too pleased with their inclusion in the World Champio ns hip. The lineup was comp rised of Lampkin , Colorner, Am os Bilbao, Steve Colley, Takahi sa Fu jin a m i and Da vid Cobos, plus wild-card Germans Carsten St ranghoner a n d Bjorn Wi sniew ski. Kenichi Kuroyama initially had a wild card rid e but withdrew and re tu rn ed home to Jap an aft er Sheffield w hen it wa s discovered tha t he had rebroken a fin ger h e h a d inju r ed in a crash in Sheffield, England, site of the first round of the series. The two wild cards in Koblenz were to prove fall guys for the regula rs, as the select six cruised throug h the qualifying lap and the local boys struggled . Th e fi rs t sec tion of th e ni gh t was made of tree stu m ps, and altho ug h in the first round it cause d no problems, a ma ssive opening step w as introduced for th e final. And, in fact, no one was able to conquer it. Fujinami and Bilbao both fiv ed , w h ile Colley, Cobos a nd Col om er heaved over for tw o bef or e Lampkin wen t stra ig h t into the lea d w ith a migh ty dab as he screamed the Beta up the vertical face. Section tw o - tightly w ra ppe d bund les of logs - caused no p roblems, as Gas Gas-moun ted d uo C oll e y an d Cobos cleaned it, as did Lampkin, leaving Colorner, sur prising ly, to dab. Fujinami and Bilbao also took a point each . Nex t was the dreade d swi ng-bridge, w hich co mpe tito rs had to ride onto thu s se t ti ng it s wi ngi ng - a n d th en across and off the other side. Both Colley and Co bos ha d Lady Luck swing agai ns t them, and both had big get-offs as they were pi tche d o ff the cro w d pleasing obs ta cle. A gra tefu l Fujinami, Bilbao and Colom er all mad e it acros s penalty-free.