Dougie Lampkin - Gas Gas endured a frustrating and difficult day at the World famous Erzberg Rodeo extreme enduro in Austria. Lampkin who finished as runner-up in the same event just twelve months ago saw his hopes of repeating a similar performance this time around disappear within the first few metres of the start. Heavy and continued rain played havoc with the course and left the start area at the base of the huge quarry deep in water.
On board footage from Lampkin's helmet cam confirmed that he made a strong start and was right amongst the front-runners as the pack emerged from the watery first turn, but as he dashed to the initial hill his machine was effectively drowned by the resulting wave. Despite this setback Dougie kept his cool in the difficult circumstances, carefully removing his goggles before tipping his bike on end in an attempt to remove the offending water.
Lampkin's calm thinking, as he literally stood on the small and only piece of dry land in sight, did the trick as he then successfully managed to kickstart his Gas Gas machine back to life, although by then the leaders were long gone. More importantly many riders were now ahead of Dougie, which meant he was going to spend the rest of his day fighting his way through heavy traffic, which would ultimately restrict his progress especially on the narrow parts of the demanding course.
Dougie's plight was made even tougher during the early part of his almost three hour long ordeal as he also had to overcome a misfiring engine due to the on going effects of the water that had been sucked into the motor during those disastrous opening seconds. However typically Lampkin was in no mood to surrender and dug in deep to record a respectable result come the finish.
The thirty-seven year old veteran campaigner was one of just fourteen riders from the five hundred starters of the main race to make it to the chequered flag to collect his sixth place trophy. Speaking after the event Dougie said. "The weather throughout the event has been horrendous, even the prologue had to be abandoned mid-way through due to the mist on the mountain. We have had snow, mist, rain and even more rain."
"It's been a frustrating day, as I made a good start and was away with the leaders until the bike bogged down. I lost so much time getting it started and then had to ride with a misfire for a fair bit afterwards, until the engine finally cleared itself."
"Making progress was really tough as there were so many riders in the way. In a couple of places I had to team up with another rider to lift our bikes past other riders who were stuck and who were blocking the way. In the end sixth was probably the best I could of hoped for, taking everything into consideration. It's annoying as it's an event I like and normally go well at." ended Dougie.