Is Toni Bou best ever?

It is an amazing achievement by any standards and once again opens-up the bar room debates along the lines of... "Is Bou The Best Ever?”

 

In terms of pure skill and ability then few would argue that Bou is indeed the best there's ever been. 

 

But as ever, you simply can't measure one generation against the next, you can only ever be the best of your era. 

 

Dougie Lampkin's five World Indoor victories were truly astounding at the time. 

 

Dougie had an incredible 

appetite for work and practice and by his own efforts alone he MADE himself the best rider in the world. 

 

In my humble opinion no rider in history, not even the legendary Sammy Miller (and that is saying something) the rider who in the 1960s laid the foundations for later generations of professional riders, possessed more sheer appetite for work than Doug. 

 

I can't speak on behalf of Bou, as I simply haven't had the personal involvement.

 

But I know for a fact that no British rider comes close to the sheer work ethic of Doug who – having decided that he was 

going to be the best trials rider in the world – put in the total 

effort and commitment that he felt necessary to reach his goal. 

 

If that meant not drinking, or socialising, or staying out late and then spending hours and hours on a bike each day, rain or shine, wind or hail, then that is exactly what he did. 

 

There were no distractions. None. For that alone, Doug is the role model to end all role models. 

 

His time spent on the bike analysing and testing and trying different things is what makes Doug the sought-after 

development rider that he is. 

 

Doug understands a trials bike from front to back, top to bottom and inside out. Before Dougie there was Jordi Tarres. 

 

Jordi is the man, who paved the way for the likes of Doug and Toni to earn a living on the Indoor circuit. 

 

The first truly ‘modern' Indoor Trial, with really extreme sections that I saw live was in Gerona and I have never forgotten the 

atmosphere that night. 

 

It was absolutely electric as the whole show was staged simply to highlight Jordi's then unique talents. 

 

It was riding like we had never seen before and while his rivals were quick on the uptake and challenged him at the top – including Brit Steve Colley who was a pretty amazing performer indoors – Jordi alone set the stage for the rise of the Indoor scene.

 

French star Thierry Michaud was the last of the old-school riders, Jordi then totally moved the goalposts. 

 

Interestingly, while Jordi has drifted in and out of trials, currently very much back ‘in' fronting the Jotagas trials project, Michaud has become something of a trials guru who talks an awful lot of sense regarding the current state of trials.

 

But towering over them all at this moment is that man Bou. 

 

It was said that no-one would ever get near the seven World Outdoor titles of Lampkin. 

 

Yet just a few short years after Dougie's reign ended in 2003 Toni already has seven on the trot in his sights. While World Championship trials remain very difficult you just wouldn't bet a single penny on him not achieveing this. 

 

At just 25-years-old he has clocked-up five on the bounce – all achieved on the factory Repsol Montesa four-stroke – and on current form looks good for at least another five...

 

Talking of long-lost summer village sports – which we have been over the last couple of weeks, ever since I foolishly printed that Bainbridge Sports in deepest Yorkshire was a pirate event – I have since 

written longhand, 100 times, Bainbridge Sports were run 

under ACU jurisdiction. 

 

And jurisdiction is not a word you'd want to write 100 times! 

 

But at least since then, having survived the ire of the Yorkshire ACU hierarchy, who do indeed have very long memories, I have enjoyed several amusing anecdotes from readers, who were reminiscing of the good old days when taking part in the aforementioned events.

 

I am talking now not of squeaky clean Bainbridge, but of some villages who weren't quite as picky as to their choice of governing body and may even have run under the skull and crosbones – Ah harrrr! 

 

Aw come on now, what is more country-villagey than a nice sunny day spent running and jumping and egg rolling and stuff like that, before finishing-off with a motorcycle scramble type event, with local lads taking on ‘foreigners' most operating under a nom de plume (false name to you) as they didn't wish to lose their ACU licences you see!

 

One nameless former ace confided in me that he once picked-up a considerable cash prize for winning the Big Race at an equally nameless venue 

by the simple expedient of shamelessly cutting the course across a wood which no official spotted as the final was run in virtual darkness – and almost everyone was in the beer tent.