Dougie Lampkin endured a torrid day at the opening Spanish Grand Prix, which marked the start to the 2010 SPEA FIM Trial World Championship. The thirty-four year old veteran campaigner finished in a disappointing seventh place and well off the pace of a top five result, which was his aim this weekend, in what was an ultra tough competition under the new FIM rules. Confirming the severity of the trial, only the leading five riders finished with scores of less than one hundred marks.


Lampkin's prepartions for this opening showdown were far from ideal, with the Beta factory rider being forced to make the long non-stop drive from the UK through the night on Thursday to arrive at Baiona on Friday afternoon as a result of the ongoing air travel ban that is now Europe wide. Dougie's rushed inspection of the fifteen hazards situated within easy viewing of the wide path that wound its way around the small peninsula that over looked the town, revealed that he was in for a tough start to his 2010 World Trial campaign. Heavy rain in the region on Friday and Saturday only added to the severity of the sections, especially now that time has been reduced to just one minute per section in the recent FIM rule shake up. With this being Lampkin's eighteenth consecutive season at the World Championship, the Yorkshireman has seen many changes to the sport over the last two decades.

Dougie made a strong opening, riding behind the likes of Bou, Raga, Cabestany and co, as a result of the new starting system, which put the current best riders first. A clean in section one and a single dab ride in the following hazard was just the confidence boosting start Lampkin was looking for, but the 'feel good' factor was short lived.

One section later and Dougie was involved in a massive crash that saw his factory two stroke Beta smashed to bits, but thankfully left him relatively unscathed. The mechanics worked hard to get the bike back in shape, but in reality Lampkin never recovered from this point forward. A string of nine fives on the trot from section five onwards and eleven maximums in total for the lap pretty much told the tale of Dougie's morning session.

It was a similar story for Lampkin on the second lap, with only the opening few sections offering him any kind of respite from a lap that this time included no less than ten fives as his tally for the day rose to well over one hundred marks. Eventually despite such a bad day, Dougie would only lose out on sixth spot by just four marks, as he and fellow British rider James Dabill finished well behind fifth placed rider Albert Cabestany.

Dougie was far from amused with the events of the day. "It's been pretty much a disaster from start to finish today and pretty much sums up the kind of week it has been. The trial was simply too hard, with many of the sections being too long for the new minute time limit. My crash in section three was as a result of me rushing, in each section you only had a few seconds to spare even if everything went OK."

"Starting the championship with this type of event is not exactly going to encourage riders to support the rest of the series. Hopefully everyone will learn from what has happened today so that we can all enjoy a far better and more suitable event in Portugal next weekend." Lampkin continued.

Dougie ended by saying. "Me and a lot of the other riders have put a lot of effort to be here this weekend when our flights were cancelled, and right at this moment I am not sure if all the effort has been worthwhile."