Dougie Lampkin has revealed how he has had to battle serious health problems after winning a record seventh Scottish Six Days Trial victory.

The 12-times FIM Trials world champion had a succession of problems over the past six months which made the road to his latest triumph anything but smooth.

Two operations, the first of which was meant to be a routine minor procedure and a second to rectify the initial unsuccessful attempt, within a four-day period late last year saw his health begin a worrying downward spiral.

With his immune system effectively destroyed, Lamp- kin faced a long road to recovery that was not without its complications, which ultimately forced him off his bike for a prolonged and frustrating period.

An intensive winter training programme that has included many miles of cycling, followed by two months of daily trials practice, put the Silsden ace back in as good a shape as possible as he headed to Fort William late last week.

However the Red Bull athlete's preparations were disrupted just two days before the start of the popular Scottish event as he was forced to visit the local hospital to seek medication as the underlying issue with his immune system flared up.

Lampkin said: “I couldn’t believe it when I got the warning signs last Saturday morning, as I had been feeling the best I had felt for a long time.

“The medication takes a couple of days to kick in, but it’s rocket fuel and doesn’t make you feel the best before it starts to work.

“This plus the fact that I had not ridden a trial competition since last October made the first two days hard work.

“I was cleaning sections, but not the way I wanted to and was on the edge a little bit in places, however that is all part of the Scottish.

“Come Wednesday things had started to click which was good as it was my early day and I knew that I needed to stay close to the lead if I was to have a chance of winning come the end of the week,” continued Lampkin.

"Thursday proved to be the turning point and put me in front, but it was then that I started to feel the pressure.

“It took a bit to remember how to deal with pressure as it’s been a while since I have been in that situation, but once I worked out what I used to do in these situations I felt slightly more comfortable,” he said.

With his competitiors struggling to make inroads into his lead, Lampkin knew the title was his provided he didn’t make any silly errors.

He added: “Going into the last day with such a big lead was strange too, as I have never been in that situation before.

“Normally things are much closer and you just have to attack, but this time it was different.

The opening group on Saturday was really tough which was not what I was looking for, but once I escaped the initial sections for just a dab I knew I was on my way,” stated Lampkin.

“It feels fantastic to have got a seventh Scottish win, and especially by such a large margin.

“I will definitely be back next year, although there are things I will do differently in the build-up.”

Whilst it was relatively plain sailing for Lampkin, Cookridge's James Dabill (Beta) continued his incredible fightback with yet another strong showing to close out the week.

Only just inside the top twenty after day one, Dabill despite having his chain come off in the last group of the trial at Nevis Forest, still managed to do enough to finish this year's SSDT as runner-up to Lampkin.

Twelve months ago Dabill lost out by the narrowest of margins, this year there was fifteen marks between him and Dougie come the end.

Local rider Gary Macdonald (Sherco) held his nerve superbly on a tough last day to ride his way on to the podium and thoroughly deserved to do so, having steadily climbed the leader- board during the week.