Dougie Lampkin: “We’ve got the best mix of riders,” a…
With 2022 drawing to a close and the New Year approaching, preparations for the DL12 Indoor Trial in Sheffield are entering their final phase.
The DL12 Indoor Trial will be almost unique for the UK as some of the best trials riders in the world descend on 7th January 2023 at the Utilita Arena Sheffield.
The event, as the name suggests, was organized by 12-time trials world champion, including five times indoor, Dougie Lampkin.
“I’ve won the World Indoor Championships a number of times,” Lampkin told Visordown, “and I’ve always wanted to officiate my own event. In England there hasn’t been one for a long time […] and I really wanted to make one myself. I probably didn’t realize the amount of work involved, but here we are.”
For Lampkin, the Sheffield event is the first he has been involved in on this scale, but he has experience working on events with Red Bull which he combines with his vast experience of the discipline itself.
“So I think I’ve been able to bring a lot of that experience to bear and the riders have confidence in me that I’ll do a good event and a challenging event. But I also want it to be safe, which is very important to me.”
The participating drivers also demand a certain level. Lampkin is of course a legend himself and as such enjoys a degree of respect himself and certainly the respect he has earned through his career was a key part of putting together the rider roster for the event.
The headline name is of course Honda’s Toni Bou, now a 34-time world champion in trials, indoor and outdoor combined, but he’s also had a strong field of riders behind him. Jaime Busto finished second to Bou in the 2022 TrialGP series, while Adam Raga finished third overall. Gabriel Marcelli completes a Spanish quartet and finished fifth in the 2022 TrialGP Championship.
Trial2 World Champion for 2022, Sondre Haga, who recently signed with GasGas for 2023, will also be present; as did 2022 British champion Toby Martyn; 2022 Trial3 Champion Harry Hemmingway; and 2022 British Championship runner-up Jack Peace.
It was important for the event to put together such a high-profile list, Lampkin said, particularly Bou. “Absolutely, I mean, everyone has seen him on social media and it’s incredible what he’s doing at the moment,” Lampkin said.
While Lampkin is pleased that Bou is in attendance, he also appreciates the timing of the event and Bou’s relatively limited schedule. “He (Bou) is racing a lot less in non-World Championship events now,” Lampkin said. “For example, he no longer even drives in the Spanish championship. So I talked to him about it and told him what I was up to and he put his hand out and said, “I’m coming.” It was really nice to have that kind of respect […] from such people.”
The same could be said of the other drivers, Lampkin explained. “Adam Ryder was like that [as Bou], and Jaime Busto, so I didn’t have to convince them that it was just a big “yes,” so that makes a difference because it takes a lot of effort to commit to, and when you have people like that they like to be one kind of “home time” of the year – it’s Epiphany Day on January 6th, a big day in Spain. So I had to put everything together so I could get them all to cum, but they do, which I’m really happy about.”
Bringing together such a collection of riders also requires a certain level of challenge from the course that Lampkin is confident in his skills from. “We have the best mix of riders and it’s up to me to ride the best sections where I’m confident I can do it.”
Lampkin believes his competitive experience with trials, in this case particularly indoors, has helped him build a challenging course. “Obviously I’ve been there and done that and seen all the things that make things great and obviously not so great,” Lampkin explained. “I think the [section] on the 25 degree angle will be interesting. It gave me a few sleepless nights trying to figure out how much I want it [to be] because obviously it’s quite steep in case you fall down.
“Sheffield will be a tough event, [and]you know we have a great rock section, a wood section mixed with tires and some big concrete pipes so we have a good mix of everything, all very different and all very challenging.”
Tickets for the event can be found at Ticketmaster.
Images courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool.
