Alfie Lampkin was the most outstanding rider of the Vertigo squad at round five of the TrialGP World Championship held this weekend in Andorra.
An extreme weekend for the fifth round of the TrialGP calendar. The two-day event held in Sant Julià de Lòria was also a two-sided affair as far as the weather was concerned: sun and heat on Saturday and rain and mud on Sunday were there to accompany the riders on the high-altitude trail: ten of the twelve sections in the Naturland area, were held at more than 1600 metres above sea level.
Alfie Lampkin, despite a poor performance on Saturday, took a fourth podium of the championship astride the Vertigo Nitro RSR on Sunday in the rain. The British rider keeps third place in the standings. Local rider Joan Miquel García, finished a fine eleventh on Saturday, but was hampered by an early forced retirement on Sunday.
In Trial2, Pau Martinez broke into the top ten on Sunday, making up for an unremarkable position on Saturday’s trial. The rider could quite easily have improved upon the ninth place finish were it not for an excess of errors. Mattia Spreafico’s result failed to reflect his actual performance: fourteenth place, one point off eleventh spot on Saturday, and fifteenth place on Sunday, with little success on the muddy and slippery sections of Naturland. Belgian rider Emile Mattheeuws battled to finish in the top 25, and likewise Adrià Mercadé, the other Vertigo entry in the category.
Sixth place for Gelabert in TrialGP
Miquel Gelabert, also behind the bars of a Vertigo Nitro RSR, continues to improve trial by trial. Good sensations for the privateer, particularly on Sunday. The highly evenly-matched field was reflected in some phases of the first lap, where he provisionally held a podium position. In the end, he finished just one fiasco shy of fourth spot, subsequently posting sixth on Saturday.
Australian Lillie Yiatrou made her debut in the Trial2 Women’s World Championship with sixth place in the championship standings.
The next event of the TrialGP World Championship will be held in the Italian town of Sestrière. It will be a points-paying trial for each of the world championship categories: TrialGP, TrialGP Women, Trial2, Trial2 Women and Trial3.
Photos: Pep Segales/Vertigo
