Dougie Lampkin (Gas Gas) has won The 2012 Scottish Six Days Trial by the narrowest of margins, to put himself in the record books as the only rider ever to have won this world famous event six times. However the 36-year-old multi world champion had to endure an agonising wait to learn his fate after a final day packed with drama and intrigue.
The 2012 SSDT saw the closest ever finish in its long history today when Dougie was only declared the winner after an exhaustive tie-break process. Following six days of competition, 176 sections and over 500 miles covered Lampkin and James Dabill (Beta) both finished the event equal on 15 marks apiece, as they dropped three and two marks respectively today.
After checking back through their scores for the whole week it revealed that Lampkin and Dabill shared the same number of cleans, ones, twos, threes and fives and thus the winner was eventually decided by the rider who had travelled the further before dropping a mark. This went in Lampkin's favour, with him having remained clean on the opening two days of the trial.
This was an incredible finale to another fantastic week of riding in the Scottish Highlands, which saw three riders go into today all with a real chance of taking the win. Michael Brown (Gas Gas) came off worst in the three way scrap and had to settle for the last podium place on this occasion as a five in one of the final groups wrecked his chances. Dan Thorpe (Gas Gas) lost marks in the same two ultra tough sections at Achintee as Brown, but his tally of six for the day was enough to pip Alexz Wigg (Gas Gas) to fourth spot overall, as Wigg dropped eleven marks today.
Ian Austermuhle (Beta) also moved up the final order with a solid last day performance, his score of nine today saw himself steal sixth place from early trial leader Jordi Pascuet (JotaGas) who faded during the closing three days. Sam Connor (Beta), Jack Challoner (Beta) and Sam Haslam (Gas Gas) rounded out the overall top ten, as just eight marks separated these three particular riders after a long week of riding.
Emma Bristow (Ossa) overcame a last minute scare and mechanical difficulties during today to claim a well deserved and executed win amongst the female riders, this being her second success in this class in a row. Andrew Anderson (JotaGas) was a clear winner in the fight to be the best Scottish competitor despite a late charge from local rider Kevin Dignan (Gas Gas).
After only making the entry list at the last minute Bradley Cox (Beta) made a textbook Scottish debut and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of his Highland adventure to claim the prize for best newcomer. This teenager rider could be one to watch at future SSDT events, and maybe an overall winner in years to come. The battle of the older guards was nearly as tight as the headline winner, with Adam Norris (Beta) grabbing the Over 40 victory by a single mark from John Shirt (Gas Gas) who had led from the start to day five.
Although the sun only shone rarely during the week, the SSDT once again shone with 276 riders enjoying six days of sporting excellence in the Highlands, which was capped by the closest finish ever and history being made. Roll on May 2013.
Full provisional final results are available for download in PDF format:
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