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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128001
ou tsi d e of Watkins Gl en , New York,
Lam p kin has a co m ma nd ing 77-po int
lead , 277-200, o ver Montesa H ond a
HRC's Takahisa Fujinami, who finished
ni nth a nd third this weekend , w it h
Colomer back in third at 182
Lampkin's first and second added up
to the overa ll win, and the engraving of
his name on the Wagner Cup, signifying
the best of the American round.
Beta teammate Kenichi Kuroyama was
second overall, carding a seco nd and a
fou rth , despi te riding in severe pain.
Kuroyama broke both of his wrists at an
indoor eve n t in Sheffield, Englan d, on
January 2, and didn't join the world tour
until the fifth event in Germany.
Thi rd overa ll we nt to Co lorner, th e
Spaniard taking a 10th, his worst finish of
the season, on Saturday, before rebounding with a win on Sunday.
Montesa Honda HRC' s Amos Bilbao
was fourth overall, his third on Saturday
the best of his season. On Sunday he was
seventh.
The No r th A me rica n con ti ngen t
d idn 't fare so well, but then thev d idn't
expect to. Ha ving ridden wo rlds before,
they knew the level of ridin g was several
steps above their own. Their scores were
the bo ttom five of the 23 entran ts bo th
days.
Mo ntesa No rth America's Ryon Bell
was the best" of the lot; his 98 on Sun day ,
good for 19th place, was the low score of
the five North Americans who entered .
On Saturday, the young Ca nadian had
tallied a 114.
Five-time US. Champion Geoff Aaron
rode his ERE Beta to scores of 112 and
(Abo ve) lampkin 's Beta teammate Kenich l Kuroyama ended up second
overall with a second and fourth over the two-day event.
(Right) HRC's Takahlsa Fujlnam i ended up th ird on day two, but a ninth
on day one left him f ifth overall .
113.
Sheree USA' s Raymond Peters wa s
19th and 20th on the weekend, d ropping
his Saturday 110 to a 103 on Sun day .
The event was held for the fourth time
a t' the Ste p pi ng Stone Ranch in West
Greenwic h, Rhode Island, and was organized by the Rhod e Island Trials Clu b.
The en tire Northeas t has been mired in
near-d rou ght conditions fo r severa l
weeks , and the lack of ra in softened up
the cou rse .:Tract ion was plen tifu l and
scores were low - too low for most riders
and the organizers, w ho toughe ned u p
three sections between the Saturday and
Sun day rounds. The changes made a difference, though scores didn 't soar.
DAY ONE
Sec tio n one, " Da nger a t the Sh ot
Hou se," looked har d er than it actua lly
was. Of the top 16 finishing World Cham - :
pionship regu lars, only Montesa Honda
HRC' s Amos Bilbao wou ld lose a poin t,
one of 11 he'd lose for the rou nd . No t so
for the orth Americans.
Sherco USA's Raymond Peters took a
three, along with Montesa North America's Ryo n Bell , an d ERE Bet a' s Geoff
Aaron took a five, as did Sheree Canada's
Derek Thomas, and Gas Gas USA's Trevis Fox. It would be a harbinger of things
to come.
Defending National Champion Aaron
said the World level was, "Probably half
agai n as mu ch (as the d omestic level of
competi tion). The Europea n level is much
higher than the Ameri can level, There 's
only about five weekends a year that the
Americans actu ally meet a nd compe te
against each other, where the Europeans
have got something going on practically
every weekend. If th er e isn 't a Wo rld
Championship, there's a Spanish National Championship or an ind oor even t. The
level just is much higher."
.
It would show as th e d ay wo re on,
with the North Americans taking the last
five of the 23 places. There was no question wh o would take the top spo t.
Lampkin was clean throu gh the first
13 sections, taking a one at 14, then clean-
ing the 15th and final one, "Old New
England," for a first-loop score of one.
The second lap his poin t total ballooned
to three, but his total of four for the day
was best by nine.
"Stayed away from the big mistakes,
which has been quite good ," Lampkin
. said . "Unfortunately, my only mistakes
were quite stupid, really. I made a bit of a
mistake on 14 With tire pressure, bu t I did
it all out'on the second loop. I think it was
section three or four maybe, on the second lap , I had a really bad two on the
start, which was disa ppo inting. and then
I just had a one