Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127965
TRIALS TRIALS DES NATIO S N , - er, Amos Bilbao, Marcel Ju stribo a nd newl y crowned Europ ean Cham p io n [ord i Pasq ue t as they topped a Britis h squa d led by 1997-98 World Cham pio n Do u g Lampkin, G ra ha m Ja rv is, Stev e Colley and Mar tin Cro sswaite. The final scor e was 128-139, w hil e host coun try Italy, led by third-place-over all finish er Dona to Miglio, upheld 'na tional prid e with a fine third place. Spain's fourth man, Bilbao , was better than Eng lan d ' s fourth man .iMartin Cros swaite, and that made all the di fference. Th is year's TdN fea tu red a new sco ring system . Wh ile in th e pas t the thr ee best scores "for the day" per team were tallied with the fourth team members ' score throw n out, this yea r saw the three best scores "per sec tion" counted mak in g the fourt h riders ' con tribu tion critical. It was a wh ole new ga me: mor e s tra tegic, m ore interes ting a nd with even more em phasis on teamwork. Had las t year' s scoring been use d , Eng land wo uld have defeated Spain, 158-182. ' Spa in and Erigla nd battl ed all d ay , a n d it was a cl ose ra ce unti l Spa in p ull ed a hea d at section 13 of lap tw o. Spain we nt 0-0-1 a nd England went 3-55. Accordi ng to m ind ers on both th e Spa nish and British squads, their riders ro de below th eir exp ected levels. Perhaps the five-w eek lay-off sin ce the last Wo rld Champions hip round caused a bit of ru s t to form on their formidable skills, "We (Spain) ro d e poorly, " claimed one of the key Spa nish min de rs. "It was just that they (Eng land) rode worse." For Team USA, the goal was to erase the memory of last year's 11th-place finis h . T h ey d id so, a n d mo r e. Han d ica pped by the fact that the rest of the tea ms had been rid in g u nder th e new ' "no-s top" rul es all year, Tea m USA had only a few w eeks between the last Ll.S, Na tio nal and the TdN to ada p t to the new ru les . Con sider in g th e ci rc u mstances, few cou ld have predi cted such a fine result from the Americans. Accord- (Left ) Former World Champ ion Marc Colomer led the Spanis h team to victo ry in the Tria l des Nations, held in Italy. (Below ) The American team prepares to start the t rial. Geoff Aaro n (69), Matt Moore (70), Ray Peters (71) and Dennis Sweete n (72) perf or med well fo r fift h place . By Martin Belair Pho to s by Mario Cande llone and Ric k Hill ,...... ~ N ~ OJ .g ..... u o 36 CHIESAIN VALMALENCO, ITALY, SEPT. 20 et in the spec tacular Italian alpine village of Valmalenco, this year's ~ Trials d es Na tions wa s a showcase of all that is right with this great sport. World-class organization and mo re than 10,000 ent husiastic spectators made the 23 tea ms fro m all over th e g lobe feel welcome in this, one of the most beaut ifu l spots on the planet. For the lea rns from Sp ain a nd the Un ite d Sta tes, th is year 's T r ia l d e s Na tion s was all abo u t red emption . At last yea r's Tria l des Nations, w hich was held on the Isle of Man , Spai n los t the "A class" title it had held for seven years and the United States los t its perennial top -five sp ot in the "Interna tiona l Tro ph y des Nations" B class. The Spanish team was led to victory by 1996 World Champion Mar c Colorn- '1