Spanish Outdoor Trials
By G2F on 25th Mar 07
Round 2 Sunday 25/03/07. Dougie Lampkin could only manage fifth place at the second round of the Spanish domestic outdoor championship held near Tarragona earlier today.
Lampkin arrived at today's venue, which sits approximately one hundredkilometres South of the city of Barcelona, in a confident mood, havingscored a convincing victory at an international invitation indoor eventheld in France late on Friday night. However despite his confidenceDougie endured a difficult day, during which he felt he was ‘harshly'penalised on two occasions, which prevented him finishing closer to hisrivals.
The course of fifteen sections comprised of nothing other than dust anddry rocks, with five of the hazards being placed in the theme park,which hosted the event. These particular sections proved nothing morethan a gesture for the few tourists who were on hand and who had bravedthe unusually cold weather. Lampkin clocked up three maximums on hisway to a total of nineteen marks, which left him someway off the paceof the leaders at this point.
Having already been docked a five for touching a marker, Dougie thenalso fell foul of the new rule in the Spanish championship, where justtouching the boundary tape is enough to be given a maximum penalty.
Although Lampkin only conceded one further five on his closing lap,this was not a significant enough improvement to pull himself furtherup the leader board.
Once again it was Dougie's new team mate Bou who was the clear winner,he put in a clean final lap to beat Raga by six marks, after the youngSpanish pairing had shared the lead at the halfway stage of thecompetition. Lampkin currently holds fourth position in the overallstandings, but will not compete in all the rounds of the championship.
Speaking after the event Dougie said. " Apart from the two fives whichI would say were doubtful, I feel that I have ridden OK. The trial hasnot been fantastic, and nor was my result. I don't plan to dwell onwhat has happened today, as I would prefer to prepare in a positiveway, ready for next weekend when the World championship starts.”
Temperature: 10 c, Weather: Bright, but windy
Results:
Rider Nat Machine Total=L1+L2+Time L1 L2
1: AntonioBou E Montesa 8 8 0
2: AdamRaga E GasGas 14 8 6
3: Takahisa Fujinami JPN Montesa 17 12 3
4: Albert Cabestany E Sherco 21 17 4
5: Dougie Lampkin GB Montesa 30 19 11
6: MarcFreixa E Scorpa 46 25 21
Current championship standings: 1: Bou 40, 2: Raga 34, 3: Fujinami 28, 4: Lampkin 26, 5: Cabestany 24, 6: Freixa 20
Dougie Lampkin's next event: 01/04/07 Sunday – Mancha Real, Spain Rnd 1 World Outdoor Chp