Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Trials Trial Club of·Warken FIM TRIALDES NATlONS reat, 'Britain the trees. Lampkin scored jus t one point, a nd hi s tea m p ick ed up 21. Fu jinami lived up to his billing, d ropping just two marks, but his team was a bit off wi th 30. Spain, w hic h a rrived lat er, had the b e st tot a l o f th e lo op , b u t it w asn' t c. eno ug h to bea t the British. Trial Cl ub o f Warken Ettelbru k, luxembourg Resu lts : Sept ember 26, 1999 A TEA MS : 1. Great Britain (53): Steve Co lle y (GG), Martin Cross wa ite (GG), G ra ha m Jarv is (5-8 ), Dougie Lampkin (Bd:) ; 2. Sp ain (54 ): Amos Bilbao (Mon>.Albert Cabestanv (GG ). Marc Co lomer (Mon), Marcel Justribo (Mon): ja p an (65): Taka hisa Fujina eu (Hon) , Kcnichi Kuroyama (&1:). To mo yu ki Ogawa (&ot). Taichi Tanaka ( Be t); 4. Ital y (lI ·n : Diego 8o:o;i:o; IMon), Fab io Lenzi ( Bet), Donato Migli o (Bet) , Da ria Re delle Gandine (Mon); 5. France (l&U : Bruno C amozzi (GG ), Christophe Camoz zi (Bet }, j utien Dupont (GG ), G rego ry Eyri ..s (GG); 6. Finland (235) : Jussi Haa pa ne n (Be t) , Sami Haka la (GGl. Joa chim Hindren (Mon ), Mika Sasai H\,lon ); 7. Sw ed en (283) : Benn y Arthursson (GG l, Anders N ilsso n (GG), Jona s Riedel (Bet ), Stefan R~l"I (Be t); 8. Germ an y (290 ); Matt hia s Hofmann (Bet ), Andreas Le t te nb ic hlcr (C G ), Carsten Strangho ner (Men), [e ns ter j un g (GG ); 9. Cz ec h Republic (305 ): Pa v,,' l Balas (GG), DJ.vid Kad lt.'C (GG), Martin Krou stek (Bd), Iiri Svoboda IMon ): 10. Netherlands (383): Mar cel Brun sveld (Ma n), Rodney Heijma ns (GGl, Alex Van den Broc k (MOil), Peter Va n d c'r Slui s (GG). D T EAM S: 1. Belgium (18): O livi er Co lso n (GG), Arnaud Dermi nc (Sell ), Hugues Lambion (Bt.-t), Michal'! Vu kvecic (5-8 ); 2. Irela nd (36): G.u l.lh And rews (Be t). · Robert C ra w fo rd (Mo n), Ala n Marks (Mo n), And rew Perry (5- 8) ; 3. Norway (90) : And re as G rea ke r (C G), Lars -Erik Fr c m st ad (Me n ), Hen ni ng Ha u ge Nil se n IMon) , Ola -And r.. Sve nsso n (GG); -4 . USA (99); Geo ff , Aa ron (BcU, Trav is Fox (GG) , Raymo nd Peters (5-8), And v jo hnso n (~on); 5. Austria (135): Mar kus A damec (GG), Eric Bran dcucr (GG)' Mario ~v"..m por (CC), Franz Sch logl ICCI. 3: -r By Mario Candellone M ~ ~ .c '" o U o 30 E TTELB RUK, LUXEMB OURG,SEPT. 26 hou gh it is th e typica l close to the trial season, this yea r's Trial d es N at ion s was especi a lly anticip ated as a ga uge for the internation al trials hierar ch y. Spain has do minated the spo rt in recent years, bu t Brit Dou g Lam pki n has brou ght the talent to a new le vel. Following a n absolu te ly domi nant season, there was no doub t that he was the best individual; but had his Eng lish co ho rts a lso improved enough to dethrone the Spania rds? The wild card was Japan, which has also made an impressive su rge of late, with several creditable rid ers on the Wo rld circiut. Over th e loop's 18 sec tions, these . three countries were in deed very close in their batt le for the overall team victory, and in the end just a single poi nt sepa rated victorious Great Brit a in fro m runner-up Spain. No one could rem ember a Tri als d es Nations in w hic h th e pod ium placer s wer e so close, and the p arity w a s a n ice ch an g e foll o wing Lampkin' s . sea s on o f indi v id ual su premacy . Sa id su pre macy w as of co urse s till evident , as the Beta rider finished with the best score of the eve nt, his tot al of four points miles better than a nyone else. The sections' s lip pery rocks and steep, muddy climbs were no challenge for Lampkin, Th e competition started a t 7:45 o n Sunda y morning , with the Rus sians going fi rst. The w ea th er was clo u dy, with the previous night 's rain th reat ening to return. In fact, jus t seconds before the U.s : team sta rted, the rain bega n to clea n off th e firs t sec tio ns . As the d ay co nti nued, ra in a nd su n a lte rnated , cleani ng and drying the sect ions . GR OUPB In gro u p B (which inclu ded the U.S'), Belgium was s tro nger th an a ny other nati on . Team leader Mich ael Vu kcevic drop ped just 10 points total , d raggin g his team to a co nvi ncing victory . The ru nner-up Irish d oubl ed Belgium's tota l at 36, led by Rob Crawford, whose eight penalties made for a score even better than that of Vukcevic, orway and the u.s. tussled over the final podium position, with the Scandinavians getti ng the nod by nine points. GROUP A The premie r division also featured a b ril lia n t fig ht fo r t he wi n. Spain had incredi b le d ep th , p os ting fou r good scores in section afte r sec tion, whi le G rea t Br ita in h ad La m p kin . As for Japan, Takahi sa Fujinami - nu mber two in the world - was stro ng, and Ken ich i Kuroyama wa s fully recov ered from an acci den t. An u nknown for th e Asia ns w as Tomoyu ki Ogaw a, w ho had aba nd oned the World circuit thr ee years ago , and only competes regularly in Jap an . The British started first, followed by the Japanese. Both found so me sectio ns with the the rocks still clean of mud. The Sp ani ard s were th e la st to s ta r t, a nd faced a d irtier set of ob stacles. A t th e midway point, all was still up in the air, wi th the three teams within four points of one another. Loop tw o was better in parts, w it h the su n having dried the mud on th e stones, but the roo ts were appearing in Wh ile t he U.S. st ill Isn't In the league of the A team s, the B class allows ou r r iders t o Improve their skills while stili competing for the podium. We were just off it in l u xem b o urg in fourth place, with Geoff Aaron (pictured ab ove) lea di n g our effo rt. (Ri ght) At ju st 16'years o ld , Ran dy Johnson was t he y o un gest competitor. y.S . Brieflv... The TdN was its usual intemational s pec" tacle. w ith 'team presentauo ns. dances and famou s French speaker Bernard Estripea u. the . kjng of indoor orgEmizers . . Rules require each country to have three or four riders . In each single section. the best .three scores from .each cou ntry are count ed. which is' why the sum of a country's separate ride r sco res do esn 't match the tea m 's total. This is a new rule. decided upon only two years ago. . Team Ma~ager M art in Belair talked about the event and .his U.S. s quad's effo rt, "G reat ' .The start area .this year was situated around a event. good job by the organizers: they drew large soccer field in town . Sections one and 18 . very good sec tions . W e are happy with t his ' consisted 'of artificial obstacles near the fourth place. W e had Peters with a pain in his start. w hile the est imated 5000 specta tors had knee due to a crash last wee k. and we brought to travel a few miles to the wood s (buses we re two young riders in. Travis Fox (18) arid A ndy available) to see the bulk of the event: J ohn son ( 16) . w ho did th eir b est. (Ge o ff) Aaron was still the best : in the seco nd loop he ., .The 25 teams. co mpeting were divided jnto . fived the . easy section one - touching a flag" grou ps A and B . and each section had two and dabbed in hazard 10 . and that was all. Six ' separate lanes. Green flags marked the easie r points . totall I'll take this chance to thank all B lane: and blue flag s dem arcated the more the Amer tcan s th at helped us . and many . diff ic ult A route. The U .S . co ntested theB -,thanks also to the fact ories and the importers for the bike s. " .• class.

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