|
|
||
All content © Bob MuIIins | |||
|
Changes At The Top As Lettenbichler Leads And Jarvis Exits Red Bull Romaniacs Offroad Day 2 was an eventful one for round four of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship at Red Bull Romaniacs with Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM) winning to take over the race lead. Graham Jarvis’ (Husqvarna) hopes of a seventh race win ended when he failed to finish due to a knee injury. The world’s toughest hard enduro rallye marched on for Offroad Day 2, putting its competitors through the rigours once again. Punishing uphills and hot weather were all capped off in true rallye style with riders now facing a night in a tent, with no outside assistance or support allowed. Race leader at the close of Offroad Day 1, Graham Jarvis led the Gold class riders away before dawn at 06:45. The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider was followed by Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Manuel Lettenbichler. Immediately hot on Graham's heels, Mani quickly ate into the Brit's lead, catching him just after the first major climb of the day. In a game of cat and mouse, neither could shake off the other, and so rode together for most of the day. However, the event turned on its head for Graham as he exited the final service point. A high-speed ditch crossing saw him twist his knee, and with the pain too much, he was forced to call it a day, allowing Manuel to ride clear for the win. That victory proved decisive, with the German jumping out to a 23-minute-plus race lead over Sherco Factory Racing’s Wade Young. While Young takes second in the overall standings, it was his teammate Mario Roman who ended Offroad Day 2 in second. A consistent and solid ride from the Spaniard paid off, as he moves into third in the overall standings. Finding his Red Bull Romaniacs rhythm, Billy Bolt (Husqvarna) also had a memorable day. Taking the ‘less is more’ approach, the Abestone Hard Enduro winner limited his mistakes compared to the previous days, riding his way up to third. He now moves up to fourth in overall classification with two days to go. Dropping back to fifth, Vision Track Beta’s Jonny Walker had a mixed day combining some top-three checkpoint times with mistakes. Sitting fifth overall, he lies just 54 seconds behind Bolt. One of the performances of the day came from Canada’s Trystan Hart (KTM). The rookie is rapidly finding his feet in the steep trails of the Carpathian Mountains, ending his day sixth, to hold seventh overall in classification. With an overnight bivouac awaiting riders at the end of Offroad Day 2, competitors won’t see their assistance teams until the service point, midway during Offroad Day 3. Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM): “It’s been a hard day. I caught up to Graham just after the first uphill and we rode for most of the day together. It was awesome riding with him, so it sucks to see him go out today. I feel like I played safe and got the win. Now it’s time to check over the bike, make sure everything is all ok and then put up the tent for the night!” Billy Bolt (Husqvarna): “Today was pretty good, not perfect, but a lot better than previously. I just wanted to reduce the crashes and errors I had been making and I think it paid off. Just rolling it back a touch and keeping momentum got me third. I feel like I’m going in right direction now and will try to keep that way for the rest of the week.” Taddy Blazusiak (GASGAS): “My riding, speed and navigation this week has been good, but I’m a little frustrated with the little mistakes I’ve been making. They’re nothing major, but are adding up, so I need to try and reduce those for the second half of the week.
Into the wild: tough day on the tracks & a night outdoors Sibiu / Hermannstadt, Romania, 29 July, 2021 - With Offroad Day 1 under their belt the competitors found themselves in the beautiful Gura Râului valley this morning for the beginning of whatever madness lay ahead on Red Bull Romaniacs Offroad Day 2. As competitors lined up beside the looming Gura Râului Dam at 07:00 am it was windy and raining slightly but not enough to dampen the tracks which were dusty compared to yesterday. As the day unfolded it became evident that there could be no question that today was going to be a tough day out there which would potentially cost Martin Freinademtz some friendships! The constant stream of extreme and the level of difficulty took its toll on many of the Gold class riders. Some ran out of water, suffering from dehydration, others had their bikes paying the price. At the same time, all this was countered by the sensational beauty of the area and the epic tracks with endless up- and downhills. First out was Graham Jarvis (GBR) who, having established his intentions yesterday by winning the day, which put him in the overall lead, was a man on a mission from the get go. But so was Manuel Lettenbichler (DEU), who is here to defend his title - and if that means duelling with the King of the Carpathians like last year - so be it. The two riders broke away from the rest of the pack early on and created a sizable gap. Behind the leaders the group remained tight between five of the veteran top guns, Billy Bolt, Alfredo Gomez, Wade Young, Mario Roman and Jonny Walker. Young gun Teodor Kabakchiev joined them and did not show any sign of struggling to maintain their pace. Their size would come to bite them once they arrived at the Red Bull Romaniacs signature section “Galindo Ridge” where they struggled to get past one another as they took any means necessary to climb the near vertical rock faces to the top. Once the unforgiving “Galindo Ridge” was conquered, the riders were
thrown into the rock garden of “Babysitter”, again no mercy was shown as
“Babysitter ridge” took them through the “Lost world” and delivered
them to the aptly named “Kill ‘em all” section which would be the
final torture for the Gold riders before the Service Point. Lettenbichler and Jarvis arrived at the Service Point together with a gap of 15 minutes before the next riders started to arrive. They then set out again on the final stretch of the day and this is when everything changed: Jarvis hit a rut in the grass at speed, forcing him to go back and call it a day with only 40 minutes to go to the finish line of the hellishly hard day. Manuel Lettenbichler was able to bring the advantage, built throughout
the day together with Graham Jarvis, into the finish and placed first. This
also made him the overall first, a solid 12min ahead of Wade Young.
Exhausted, it was Mario Roman (ESP) who crossed the finish arch behind Mani
and Billy Bolt (GBR) in third place. First time competitor Trystan Hart
(CAN) gave a good fight, placing 6th behind Young and Walker. Meanwhile, Silver class rider Igor Camino (ESP) chose to take a boat ride part way through his day! He fell off the track and his bike rolled down the slope landing by the lakeside in an area too steep to ride back up. So a boat was commandeered for help, the “ferryman” was paid and the happy Spaniard was back on track towards the Service Point within a good 2 hours! Funny detail: It is not the first time that this happened in the area and it is not the first Spaniard… Xavier Galindo was the first one to become famous for the “boat rescue” in 2018… After a really tough day yesterday the Silver class were pleasantly surprised at the start of the day by some fast tracks, but were faced again with some steeper sections later in the day, sharing some downhills with the Gold class. Nick Fahringer (USA) came in first again followed by Toni Mulec (SVN) in second and Jamie Lewis (GBR) a very close third place today. Romanian, Emanuel Gyenes, the eighteen-edition veteran, came in 10th. The Bronze class covered 112km of racetrack today and it was “all fun ‘n games”, fluent riding in breathtakingly beautiful surroundings and with the outlook in mind that they will be hanging out with the Pro’s in the evening in a camp-atmosphere. Results: 1. Bogdan Marin Stelian Butiu #420 (ROU), 2. Artem Kuncevich #509 (BLR), 3. Ágúst Már Viggósson #457 (ISL) The Iron and Atom class had a slightly different start location and were
eased gently into their challenging sections with flowy, fast tracks to warm
up, riding some open alpine terrain in the spectacular Galindo area. Things
did get real for them and they were faced with some hard enduro and some
muddy spots, riding distances were 110km and 93km respectively.
|
