Raga rules the world
By TMX Archives on 22nd Dec 06
AT the start of the 2006 campaign the question was, had Adam Raga, having finally claimed the world crown in 2005, finally kicked-off a new era in World Trials or could Britain's Dougie Lampkin really make that extra effort and bag what would be an almost unbelievable eighth title to take him clear of Jordi Tarres, as the pair of aces are locked on seven crowns apiece.
As we all know now of course, the final answer was that no-one had an answer to the sheer consistency of Gas Gas man Raga and while he certainly did not dominate the series, only taking three wins from 12 starts, in the end Adam ran out a comfortable winner.
His closest challenger actually turned out to be 2004 champ Takahisa Fujinami, mounted, like Doug, on a four-stroke Repsol-Montesa, who enjoyed a superb late run in the series, winning three rounds on the trot in Italy, Poland and memorably in Britain. The problem was that, prior to Fuji's run, himself, Albert Cabestany and Doug kept tripping over each other's feet, effectively stealing points off one another with the result being that Raga was able to slowly eke out a points advantage.
For full story and results see T+MX NEWS, Friday, December 22, 2006