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World C am n hipObserved TrialsSeries, Round 6 h pio s By John Dickinso n VIR1EU I.EGRAi'l1D, FRANCE, JUNE 27-28 ix p oints. In th e season to d at e , that' s how far fro m perfect in th e cha mpionship po int s race Britain' s Do ug Lampkin h as been. H e has fin ished seco nd only twic e and won every other tim e . Th e Frenc h ven ue, like almost eve ry ot he r co u rse, clea rly belon ged to Lampkin , and h e h opped ri gh t b a ck int o hi s d oubl e -winn ing groove oyer the tw o d ays. '/ As the season p ro gr esses, however, Lam pkin has becom e incr easingly critica l of wh at he suggests is an effort by th e FIM to make the loops "easier" to close up th e ga p bet w een h is an d th e other riders' scores . "They changed the rul es radically to sto p me from winnin g trials, and now that that has failed , they are making the trials easie r," Lampkin sa id . "Of course tha t makes things mu ch close r, but that isn ' t what World Cha mpio ns hi p tr ial s are su pposed to be about. They are supp osed to find the best rid er an d th at means pu shing the limits of the sections. Making it all easy so an yon e can win is rubbish !" No t th at "a nyo ne" has done much wi nning but h im , th ou gh his vict ori es have been by a sma ller margin in recent rou nds . His victory Saturd ay was by a seven-point margin , and Sunday's came wi th a margin of on ly th ree, but most p eople wh o se e him r id e ag ree th at these smaller margins.d on 't truly reflect his curre nt level of su periority. rr 50, w it h Lampkin ' s wi ns (a nd h is position a top the championshi p point s hea p) p re tty mu ch taken as a foregon e co ncl u sio n, th e real interes t lay in th e ba ttle for second place - bo th on the day an d on the season. Fo r m e r World Champ io n M a r c Co lomer an d Brit a in' s Graham Jarvis spent Satu rday battling with one another for second place, a ba ttle of so me sig n ificance as Jar vis is tryin g to ov er take Colo mer's seco nd place in the cha m p ionship poi nts race. Ja rv is managed to beat Co lome r by five ma rks , giving the Briti sh rid er so me ho pe th at he mi ght come away from the weekend ha vin g gai ned on his ri val. But Sunday was a d isaster for Jarvis - he finished ou tside the top 10 - while Co lorner once again finis hed on the podium, this tim e in seco nd, jus t o ne po int ahead of Kenichi Kuroyama . And so Jarvis is 19 p oints beh ind Colomer, 167-148, with Lampkin v irtuall y untouchable on 234. Kuroyarna , me anwhile, is hot on Ja rv is' tail with 141 points for fourth in the standings. . A large spectator turnout made for a good atmosp here o n th e IS-secti o n course. Two la ps were run each day, with the opening tw o sections staged on big, wi de waterfalls. The trick here was to zigzag to keep forwa rd momentum. The next nin e hazard s we re all set in a d ry creek wi th lots of slippery g reen Doug Lampkin continued his winn ing ways wit h another dou ble victory. Thus far in the season, the Beta rider Is only six champions hip po ints away from perfect. moss o n slim y rocks . Th ese were followed by thr ee sections that we re set in a n o ld gra ve l quarry a nd sp ice d u p by having lo ad s of ma s s iv e r o cks dumped in. Then came the fi na l sectio n, m an-mad e and set in the host town of Vireu Ie Grand , lo ca te d near Lyons. Lampkin's open ing lap cos t h i m ju s t 13 m arks, with 12 of thos e coming in th ree-mark bursts on th e super-slippery rocks of the third, fourth , seve nth and 11th sections . Even so, he wa s fa r s upe rio r to h is comp etition and it was he a lo n e w ho cl ean ed th e eigh th section - both lap s. Only h is te amm ate Kuroyama ca m e close in t ha t sec tio n, sco r i ng a three an d a one. On th e secon d ci rc uit . Lampkin had the measu re . of th e co urse an d appeared to be cruising to a sing le-figu re score when he fived the 11th and also th e fin al s ect io n , whic h was ad mittedly tricky. " I' m reall y a n noye d wit h m y s elf, " Lampkin said . "I sho uld neve r have lost those tw o fives." Th ere we re ac tua lly o nly three clean s on tha t final s ub, a nd th ev came fro m Spa nis h . teenager Albert Cabestany, Colome r a nd Ja rvis. Eve n with his two fiv es, La mp ki n s ti ll had th e low score on th e loop, thou gh Co lome r was wi thin on e ma rk and Jar vis just on e more behind. Brun o Ca mozzi, m eanwhil e, w a s putting togeth er his tradi tional effort in front of the home fans, and fourth place was easily his highest of the series thus far. He just beat Kuro yama and Takahisa Fujinami. David Cobos came back from a below-par first circuit to claim seventh ahe ad of courtym an Marcel Justribo and an off-form Steve Colley. Just as on Saturday, Sunday was an extrem ely hot day; Lampkin ' s rid ing was a pe rfect match. All the contenders had the measure of the sections - aside from the sevent h, despite the fact that it had been made easier. It rem a ined the biggest mark stealer, and only Lam pki n managed to scra pe throu gh for a one on the fina l circu it as he kept his nerve to rid e to an ot her vi ctory - and a no the r perfect 20 championship points. But it w as every bit as close as th e fin al points tally on the day su gges ts, as Co lorner only lost his cha nce for the w in when he took a fiv e on the lIth sect io n o f h is first la p . Sunda y w a s nothing but a disaster for Jar vis and he watched his rivals leapfrog hi m in the re sults. Kuroyama broke away fro m Fu jinami, who struggled on the slipp ery sec tions, to ta k e third b e hind Co lomer, while Ca mozzi again claimed fou rth . . Amos Bilbao and Diego Bosis both improved drastically over their opening day to claim fifth and sixth ahead of an off-form Cobos, while Steve Coll ey just sque ezed ou t Marcel [ ustribo and Fuji- . nam i in a close finish. 4~ French World Trial Vlreu Ie Grand , France Results: June 27-28, 1998 (Round 6) Satu rday 1. Dou g Lampkin (Bet); 2. Gra ha m Ja rvis (Seo); 3. Marc Co lo me r (Mo n ): 4. Bruno Ca mo zzi (e-G ); 5 . Kenic hi Kuroyam a (Bet) . Su nday 1. Dou g Lamp kin (Ek' ; 2. Marc Colomer (Mon); 3. 0 Kenichi Kur oyama ( &o t ); 4. Brun o Ca mozzi (G-G); 5. Amos Bilbao (C-C ). 29