When the fifth round of the 2015 FIM X-Trial World Championship takes place in the little known town of Wiener Neustadt tomorrow evening it will be the first time since 2003 that the series has visited Austria.
For a six year period from 1998 through to and including 2003, Vienna was part of the then FIM Indoor Trial World Championship before beginning a long twelve-year absence from the calendar.
Dougie Lampkin was a three time winner in Austria during the late nineties come early part of this new century, and will return to the country this weekend now not as rider, but as the Vertigo Team Manager.
Back in the day Marc Colomer was Lampkin’s main rival, with the Spanish supremo twice taking top honours in Vienna, before the ageing duo handed over to a then very young Adam Raga – Gas Gas.
Raga was the last winner on Austrian soil back in 2003 on a night when he was joined on the podium by Albert Cabestany – Sherco and Lampkin respectively. Raga will be hoping that it is a happy return to Austria for him, and whilst tomorrow’s event will be hosted in Wiener Neustadt rather than Vienna, he is sure to be looking for the same outcome.