On The Pegs June 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 6 | Page 92

On The Pegs 92
11993 European championship.
Basically I left the schoolboys when I was sixteen and you
weren’t allowed to ride abroad until you were seventeen and
you gained an international license, so I was seventeen at
the time. Obviously, the stepping stone up to world championship
is the European Championship. So I had never really
ridden abroad before. We didn’t really know the level of the
other riders. So my father, Martin, said, “Let’s go to the first
rounds of the European Championship in Belgium. Let’s see
where the level is, see what position you are and see if you want to do the rest of
them.” So I finished sixth in Belgium in the first round. I rode okay, but nothing
special. My dad said, “I think we should go to the next one. What do you think?” I
was keen for it. I loved it. We just got in the van with all the gear. We’d ridden in a
different country for probably the second or third time in my life. I just loved the
whole experience, really. I got a little bit nervous and everything, so that didn’t
help as well.
That was the first year I could ride it. Then we got riding the rest of the series
and a few big things happened during that year. My first ever win abroad was in
the north of Spain in the Spanish/European trial. Then there were three riders all
within three points. Obviously back then it was 20 points for winning, then 17,
then 15, then 13. So it was very close between three of us in the final round in the
south of France. I just had an absolutely amazing day and nobody was even close
to me. I felt I handled the pressure really well. I became European champion. I
think that’s a big step in my career because that showed everybody that Dougie
Lampkin was a decent rider. It opened up a few doors as well. Obviously I had the
Lampkin name behind me, that certainly didn’t do me any harm at all. But after
that the European championship is when I signed a two-year deal with the Beta
factory, to have a full factory contract. So I think that’s one of the first big
moments of my career that sort of set me on the path.