Dougie Lampkin - The most talented biker...
Probably. But it's unlikely that you'll hear no-nonsense Yorkshireman and eleven-time World Trials champ Dougie Lampkin making a big noise about it
For a man who spends so much of his time with his feet up Dougie Lampkin MBE ('My Bloody Effort not some Other Bugger's Effort') has both his feet planted firmly on the ground. There's none of that prima-donna sulking, no high-and-mighty attitude problems, no impossible demands. Dougie, despite his success is, to all intents and purposes, just a normal bloke. It's not just the Yorkshire way, it's the Lampkin way, too.
"My first trials was at six months old when my Mum took me to the Scottish Six Day," says Dougie, matter of factly. "As I was growing up
I was always at trials meetings. When I got old enough to help there was my dad Martin and then cousin John to support so it was really just a way of life." There's nothing surer than inevitability.
The Lampkin trials mafia is a sizeable operation. "Our family is massive. We went to a christening a bit back and there were forty six blokes in the family there and, I think, only two of those aren't involved professionally in trials riding or bikes. The support I've had off all of them has been massive."
But support comes in a variety of means. What's really helped keep Douglas Martin Lampkin 'normal' is surely the extensive piss-taking and merciless ribbing from his family and 'friends'.
"Silsden (home town in North Yorkshire) isn't the kind of place that would let anyone get big headed," says Dougie. "It's funny but when I walk up the street the day after I've got back from losing a World round or maybe making a bad mistake in an indoor round or something, the streets are full of people asking me, why? And what happened? They're all keen to offer their opinions and to take the mickey. But when I win nobody says owt. There's no pats on the back or congratulations. Nobody says 'you were brilliant last weekend.' It's just how it is."
But surprisingly, bearing in mind his thick Yorkshire twang, Dougie is only second generation Yorkshireman. "Don't tell anyone this," he says, "but me Grandad came up from London on his motorbike and sidecar to work in a munitions factory during the second World War and we've stayed put ever since so, as a family, we're not quite so North Yorkshire as you'd expect."
