Cycle News Staff | July 31, 2017
2017 Red Bull Romaniacs Extreme Off-Road Results – The 2017 Red Bull Romaniacs ended with some of the Bronze class riders arriving first at the traditional hillclimb just outside Sibiu, Romania, July 26-29, with thousands of fans watching. The first Gold class rider to arrive was German rider “Mini Letti” Manuel Lettenbichler, who nailed the infamous uphill on the first attempt. Mini Letti might not be called “Mini” for much longer. In a career-lifting move, Lettenbichler unleashed mayhem and left many of the established top-guns eating his dust.
2017 Red Bull Romaniacs Extreme Off-Road Results
Coached by his father, Andreas Lettenbichler, and teaming up with Great Britain’s Paul Bolton in some of the sections, Mini Letti won the day and secured himself an overall fourth place in the race. After two unsuccessful attempts at the rally, this was his first finish—with an absolutely breathtaking result!
His riding buddy for the last two days, Paul Bolton, seemed to be as excited about Letti`s performance as he was his own. Like Mini Letti, Bolton delivered one of the best performances of his life. He rode best-times from day one, scored a second place on the final day and landed himself in third place on the Red Bull Romaniacs podium for the first time in 10 years.
2017 Red Bull Romaniacs Extreme Off-Road Results
The highlight of this year`s Red Bull Romaniacs, however, was Graham Jarvis. Riding in a league of his own, winning the first three and hardest days of the race, Jarvis played it safe on Off-Road day four. Knowing that he had almost half an hour leeway over Sherco-mounted Mario Roman to secure his overall win, he left the open tracks and the spotlight to the “young wild ones.” During the four days, Jarvis was seen using every spare minute to either rest or focus on preparing the next day; and winning his race, which he did—by a long shot over Roman. It was the sixth Red Bull Romaniac victory—he is now officially a legend of the race.
“Well I can’t believe it, I’ve won it six times, that’s more than I could ever have dreamt of,” the Brit said. “Obviously every year it gets harder and harder and everyone`s upping the pace, I can’t believe it really, it`s just an incredible experience. I was just happy to get to the finish. This last day, I’ve really struggled; I don’t mind admitting that at 42 years old four days on the trot gets harder. There’s no secrets about it, you just have to use your experience and stay out of trouble, knowing when to go fast and when to play safe. You go through a lot of emotions during the four days and I’m so tired I can’t feel anything. I just want to get a beer and sit down and relax.”
2017 Red Bull Romaniacs Extreme Off-Road Results
“I’m feeling so good right now,” said runner-up Roman. “I’ve been working so hard the last couple of years, I’ve had good results but this is pretty much the best for me, I can’t complain, I’m really happy with Sherco and my team. Today was a perfect day; I didn’t take any risks and I didn’t think about any of the other riders, I had a good gap and just did my best. I feel at home in the finish with the hillclimb because I have lots of these at home and have ridden them all my life so I had a lot of fun in the finish. I’m young but I have a lot of experience and I know that it’s never over until you get to the end, when I got to the hillclimb I realized that I was second overall. With so many hours riding the bike and navigating the trails you have to be 100-percent focused. It’s not always possible to be 100-percent focused, and that’s when we might crash, which is what happened to me on Off-Road Day One. I need to learn from this and will be better for next year. It is by far the toughest race, I’m really happy”
“I’ve had an awesome week, no major hiccups or anything like that,” said third-place finisher Bolton. “I’ve been positive all week, just trying to ride my own race. I’m more mentally and physically prepared than ever before and it has really paid off. It’s my tenth year, so it was all or nothing; it had to happen this year! I rode well from the beginning and consistency was key.”
In the Iron class, big-twin travel enduro riders Gerhard Foster (Touratech BMW) and Quinn Cody (KTM Adventure 1090) managed to write history and navigate bikes twice the size of a hard enduro one through the four Red Bull Romaniacs days. Forster finished 14th and Cody 33rd.
Four out of 10 women who took on this year`s Red Bull Romaniacs crossed the finish line. Kirsten Landman showed her endurance and competitive ability yet again by smoking the Silver class. Bronze-class riders Emma Broadbent, Anna Larissa Redinger, and Iron class Heidi Kjogx also rode through the Red Bull finish line. CN
2017 Red Bull Romaniacs Extreme Off-Road Results