Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Observed Trials World Champion Dougie Lampkin The Brit talks about ,winning and losing titles and hailing his main rival as a teammate on the other foot now, and he's the one who's got the pressure and has to hang on to the number-one plate. I think it'll be better for me in '03. What did you do to prepare yourself for this year's outdoor season? How hard was it to train with your ankle iryury? I trained really well, more than I ever have. I spent a lot of November and December out in Spain, living with Amos Bilbao, riding until it was dark and then going to the gym. It was really punishing. Then I hurt myself in the third weekend in January, so that just stopped everything. I was riding better than I ever have done, and I was really enjoying it. But when I hurt myself, I stopped enjoying it, and I couldn't train in the gym. I'd had enough, really. How big of a psychological boost was winning the opening round of the championship, and what effect do you think it had on your competitors? That was one of the key points of the season. It didn't start too well, though, because I rode into a tree while practicing and shoved a branch in between two of my fingers, which meant that I had to go to hospital and couldn't practice. But it was section three during the event when I realized that I could still do it - I only lost one mark and hardly anyone else got through it. Traveling home after the opening round felt brilliant, because I'd had two wins and a decent championship lead. I think I won the first six days, which was really important. STORY AND PHOTOS BY JONTY EDMUNDS Even if you're not a follower of observed trials, you've probably heard of Dougie Lampkin. After all, how can you forget the name Dougie? But the real reason that you can't forget the name is because it's in the headlines a lot, and we mean a lot - usually for winning World Observed Trials titles. The Brit has won the World Observed Trials titles for the last six years, and can you believe that's not a record? But he is hoping to, perhaps next year, tie the all-time win record of seven, set by Jordi Torres of Spain. Lampkin was the Indoor Trials World Champion as well, but he lost that title this year, so it's hard to open the pages of this publication, at least, and not see Lampkin's name plastered all over the place. Not long ago, we caught up to the factory Montesa rider and reviewed his 2002 season, a season that didn't get off to the best of starts but ended up in a shower of champagne. 46 NOVEMBER 13, 2002' cue • .. n When you failed to win this year's Indoor World Trials Championship, some thought that '02 might be the year that Dougie.Lampkin would get beaten outdoors, as well. Did you feel any extra pressure going for your sixth consecutive title? Q The Spanish press was talking about how the three young Spaniards - Freixa, Raga and Cabestany - were going to beat me, and obviously there was extra pressure, but no, I didn't let it get to me. I was really disappointed not to win the indoor title, but right in the middle of it, I didn't practice for eight weeks. I just went from trial to trial without riding in the week, because I had that much strapping on my ankles [due to injuries]; it just wasn't happening for me. But I was still getting podium finishes, so I was thinking, "Just stick with it and see what you can do; you never know, the pressure might get to him [Cabestany]." It didn't, and he rode very, very well. Who knows, even if I had been fit, I might have had a job beating him. The boot's A .. _!IS Many of Europe's motorcycle manufacturers seem to be moving the design of trials bike forward at an alarming rate, while Montesa's development seems a little slower. Do you think this is a possible reason why some of your competitors have been able to "close the gap' on you, and are you happy with Montesa's development program? I think it is, yeah. It isn't really a secret that that's what I've discussed with the factory. I know everyone is thinking about four-strokes, but it looks like development seems to have stopped on ours, which I think is a big problem. We've got one of the heaviest bikes. I'm not the smallest rider, either, so especially for the indoors, I think it's a bit more of a problem. We are working a lot to improve things, though, but with HRC developing and build: ing their new Moto GP bike, things are pushed to the absolute limit in Japan. We're doing things at the team base in Barcelona to try and improve things ourselves, and Amos is working really, really hard almost every day, but no results at the minute. A Q How do you continue to motivate yourself year in and year out? A Changing from Beta to Montesa was a really good decision. Everything was just too easy at

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