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Red Bull Romaniacs 2016 Offroad Day 3

Single trail heaven, ruled by Jarvis

Rain showers, no dust and lots of grass, wet grass!

The “Toughest Red Bull Romaniacs Gold class day ever”, Offroad Day 2, had shredded through riders and bikes like a tornado through Kansas, leaving only ca. 50% of the riders at the start-line this morning. After three days of scorching sun and “dust till dawn”, the weather gods decided to show the already decimated field of Red Bull Romaniacs riders some mercy, or did it? This morning, rain and a few thunderstorms cleared the dust off the trails, resulting in better grip and more moderate temperatures. The weather stayed cool during the day, with only a few local rain showers and some fog at the top. The grip however went from hero to zero as soon as grass became involved. The wet grass on some of the hills might have been one of the biggest scare factors of the day for all classes. Weather conditions worsened later in the day, creating mayhem.

Yesterday's winner and current overall leader, Graham Jarvis, first on the tracks this morning was left to plow the trail while being chased by the highly ambitious runners-up. By the time he reached “10A”, just before CP3, Mario Roman (ESP, start 3 min after Jarvis) briefly caught up with him. Alfredo Gomez (ESP, start 6 min after Jarvis) was hot on their heels and slowly gained time on Jarvis. All this happened before they entered the insane combination of gnarly sections “Black slope”, “English farmer” and the new “CDI”, supposed to mix things up for the day. Before those sections, in terms of riding time, the hacking order was: Roman, Jarvis, Gomez, Young, Bolt.

When things got really ugly before the service point, Gomez was the one to step up to the plate. He came out first after “CDI”, faster than Jarvis and being chased by Roman. However, Jarvis recovered quickly and regained his lead, arriving at the service point ahead of Gomez. He held his lead the 2nd half of the day, picking unimaginable lines and staying on the bike even in close to vertical downhills. By the time he reached the finish, he had built a sizable lead of ca. 13 minutes. “The King” left the racetrack with another day-win up his sleeve at around 2pm to get some rest and recuperate for the “Grand finale” tomorrow. Jarvis: "It was another really long day. I can't afford to back off with these guys pushing so hard. The competition is at a really high level, whatever lead I have I just have to keep going and push hard. Right from the start, there were some really gnarly hill climbs, I was off my bike 5 or 6 times pushing, it's been tough. It was cold at the top, all kinds of weather rain and fog, I had wet gloves making my hands cold, and it was hard to ride."

Gomez finished in a well earned 2nd place, stealing big chunks of Jarvis`s glory in the tough sections before the service point. Gomez: "I did my best all day. It was a good day for me. I did crash twice in the wet grass going too fast. The problem is Graham is flying and he can go straight when other people can't! I need to go home and practice!"

Impressively, Red Bull Romaniacs rookie Mario Roman (ESP) continued to deliver a very consistent performance on the third race day - with only one more day to go. Roman, finishing 3rd, ca. 25 minutes behind Jarvis, also ranks 3rd in the overall position in the race. Roman: "It was a tough day, 7,5 hours, I expected it to be less and the level today was pretty high. I rode well, made a few GPS errors, the trails were marked well but it was quite foggy up there. I still managed to arrive 3rd. Overall I am very happy and we'll see what happens on the final day"

Wade Young (ZAF) stayed close to the leading trio all day. When arriving at the finish ca. 30 minutes after Jarvis, he seemed to be rather unaware of his performance during the day and reported many riding mistakes, not finding the flow and some navigation issues. Despite all this, he finished the day 4th, securing a good 4th position in the overall ranking.

Billy Bolt (GBR) delivered some impressive riding times in the morning until checkpoint 3, but was struggling in the carnage of the sections after “10A”, where he lost over an hour.

In the Silver class Andy Noakley (GBR) set off to what appeared to be another top performance, but disappeared from the radars shortly after checkpoint 4. Noakley: “I was slightly off track and hit a steel cable, that secured some drift-wood in the water. It chopped my front brake line and I had to kamikaze down some hills to the Service point!” Noakley recovered and even managed to finish the day with another win, fortifying his overall lead in the Silver class.

Riders from today's Bronze class were faced with the challenge of weather as well as terrain. Grassy single tracks became "greasy single tracks" after the rain and proved difficult to get traction on. Fog made visibility an issue and many riders were beginning to feel that endurance was one of the hardest factors in this race! Today's battle was between Miroslav Culka (CZE), who was first through the finish and has dominated the top spot on all 3 of the Offroad days, and Toomas Triisa (EST), who won the prologue and has been making his presence known throughout the off road days. Matthias Saric (GER) finished in third today and Romanian rider Radu Sardarescu has been edging closer to the top each day finishing 4th today.

The Iron class has also become a real race, it is no longer just a "tourist" class. Oscar Hernandez Panos (ESP) and Marcel Vogel (CHE) have held onto the top two positions for all three of the offroad days. Tomorrow will be the true testing of the iron riders and possibly the point at which they decide to move up to Bronze next year!

Results: http://www.redbullromaniacs.com/results/results-2016/