World Indoor Trials Championship
Round 3 – 09/02/08
Granada, Spain
James Dabill’s maiden season as a permanent rider
in the 2008 World indoor trials championship continued in
Granada, Spain last night, with the youngster from Leeds once
again coming off worst against his more experienced rivals.
Despite his best efforts James could not recover from technical
difficulties with his clutch, and a broken rear wheel, which
forced him to ride his second bike for the majority of the
event. The scale of the disaster was clear to see with Dabill
failing in all but the last section, taking his score to a
hefty thirty-three marks.
With three out of the six rounds now having been completed,
Dabill sits seventh in the general classifications, just one
point behind his compatriot Dougie Lampin, who has also endured
an equally torrid indoor campaign this year so far.
Although James finished in a similar position in Barcelona
just six days before, the two performances were visibly different.
In the northern city James had rode with great confidence
and looked very much on par with the other riders, however
two unforced errors would spoil an otherwise good ride. In
Granada it was a stark contrast, with Dabill and his bike
never looking in tune with each other.
Only a three on the waterfall, the last section of the evening,
prevented Dabill from suffering total humiliation in front
of the three thousand Spanish fans. James’ ordeal had
lasted a mere eight minutes and forty eight seconds, a seemingly
brief encounter in return for the long journey south from
his Italian team headquarters.
“I do not know what it is about Granada, but I had
an equally bad time here last year too.”
“The night didn’t start well, with us having
to bleed the clutch on my first bike just minutes before the
trial started. It was weird as it had been perfectly OK during
practice, but in the warm up the lever came straight into
the bars.”
“A five in the first section set the tone, and when
I broke the rear wheel in the second hazard, I had a feeling
that it was just going to be one of those nights. I never
felt comfortable on my second bike and really struggled for
the rest of the lap. I was glad when it was all over, and
I want to forget about it immediately, as it was a real nightmare
in every way.”
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