Long serving Red Bull athlete Dougie Lampkin failed to have the opportunity to show his passion for the World famous Scott - time and observation -Trial, when his day was brought to an abrupt end even before his challenge had got under way proper. Lampkin was looking for a winning return to this unique event after having missed last year's trial due to injury and after having been knocked off the running early on by a machine failure two years ago.

Despite being in one of the busiest periods of his long career, with demand for the thirty four year old being immense away from his competition schedule, Lampkin had put in a huge amount of time and effort as he looked to record his fourth Scott win. Dougie has only recently returned to compete in this ultimate test of man and machine, after having been absent during the height of his career when he was consumed by winning no less than twelve FIM Trial World titles. The tough Yorkshireman won his first Scott back in 1994, during the same season when he also clinched his maiden GP victory. Lampkin returned to do battle with the North Yorkshire moors twelve years later and took back to back wins in 2006 and 2007 to confirm his liking for this special trial. Dougie's own father Martin was a four time winner of the Scott back in the late seventies and early eighties.

Dougie looked set to make it three wins in a row in 2008, but was robbed of this historic opportunity when machine failure forced him out of the running before even the first of six fuel stops. This was a major frustration for Lampkin which was compounded even further as Dougie then suffered a broken wrist mid way through the 2009 season that then forced him to miss last year's Scott trial.

With two years of heart break still raw in his memory, Dougie was more determined than ever to make amends this time around, with the veteran campaigner being meticulous in his preparations ahead of this year's event. However despite the best made plans Lampkin was to endure his third year of frustration, as once again he was sidelined by machine failure prior to the initial petrol stop. Despite the best efforts of Dougie and his support team, he was to take no further part in the competition.

An hour or so later, Dougie could be found back in his civilian clothing urging on the other riders as they continued their battle with this cruel event. Speaking about his day Lampkin said. "Words can't describe just how disappointed I am as I really love this trial and really wanted to see my name on that winners trophy again. No one could have predicted what has happened, and you just have to put it down to being one of those things."

"I had a rear wheel puncture before Orgate, which I managed to fix without losing too much time, and I thought at least that was my bad luck out of the way early. However little did I know that only a few minutes later my day was about to come to a permanent end. We tried some new parts, but still there was just nothing. The bike was officially dead."

"Rather than heading straight home, I just wanted to come and support the other guys. I have got a lot of relations, friends and team mates who were still going and I wanted to do my bit by cheering them on." Ended Lampkin.

Image by kind permission of Eric Kitchen.
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