Dougie Lampkin resumed his extreme enduro career with a third place at the Erzberg event in Austria, which is recognised as one of the toughest races of its kind. The ex multi World trials champion who has not ridden an enduro competition for several months due to his continued exploits at the SPEA FIM Trial World Championship was robbed of a comfortable runners' up finish as his chain derailed close to the end of the gruelling event.

Twelve months ago Lampkin made his debut at this extreme enduro and paid a heavy price for his lack of experience, as sheer exhaustion and a blow to the head by a stray rock saw him airlifted from the Austrian quarry before being forced to spend the night in a nearby hospital. This time around the thirty four year old veteran campaigner arrived much better prepared and looking for a win despite being up against a World class field who have much more experience at this type of event. With heavy rain having fallen for most of the week, Dougie adopted a cautious approach as he set about establishing himself on the front row for Sunday' s main event by posting suitable times during Friday's and Saturday's prolog.

Deep and laying water on the fast quarry track during the prolog runs meant conditions were both unpredicatable and even more dangerous than usual. Lampkin knew that a top fifty placing would be good enough to put him on the front row and eventually qualified in twenty eighth place after his two timed runs.

Although conditions had been wet on Friday and Saturday, the arrival of extremely hot weather on Sunday brought with it thick dust and another factor that would play its part in the two hour test of skill and endurance. Having crashed early on last year in the initial dust cloud that accompanies the mass start, Dougie played it safe to begin with this time around as he slowly picked his way through the field and on to the tail of eventual winner Tadeusz Blazusiak.

Whilst the accomplished Polish rider established a clear advantage as the race moved into its later stages, Dougie had done the same over third place and looked to have the runners up trophy within his grasp. However with the temperatures rising Dougie's bike was to develop a severe misfire, which was later traced to an overheated spark plug during the post race inspection, which made it almost impossible to maintain momentum on the most testing parts of the course.

Despite this major handicap, Lampkin fought on strongly, pushing his bike when he was unable to ride it any longer on the steeper sections as the engine refused to run. Cruelly Dougie was to be struck down by one final mechanical problem, as the factory Beta threw a drive chain that then became jammed and cost Lampkin valauble minutes as he struggled to free the mass of metal mess.

Bitterly disappointed Dougie crossed the line in third place to become one of just fifteen riders to finish this extreme test of man and machine.

Lampkin said. "Last time around it was the man that failed, but this time he has done OK, but his machine has been struck down by a few mechanical issues. I would have been happy with second place at only my second attempt, but to have lost what was a safe position so close to the finish is a major blow."

Dougie continued. "Whilst you can take nothing away from the event, from my own personal point of view it was much easier this time as I actually knew what was happening. Last year I had no real idea, as I had only seen the race on DVD. I want to come back next year, as I know I can go better again."

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