Great Britain’s Billy Bolt edges out Germany’s Manuel Lettenbichler in a knockdown heavyweight battle to the end.
Photography by Future7Media
After two days of racing, just a couple of seconds decided the outcome of this year’s Red Bull Tennessee Knockout (TKO) Extreme Enduro in Tennessee. In a star-studded field that was deep with talent and made up of top riders from around the world, two of them, one from Great Britain and one from Germany, would end up battling for the overall win in Sunday’s deciding 30-plus-minute grand finale. When all was said and done, and after competing in several grueling qualifiers over the weekend, it was the Brit, Billy Bolt, who prevailed, squeaking out the victory over the German, Manuel Lettenbichler, for an exciting win.
Bolt, an off-road heavyweight who competes on the FIM Hard Enduro circuit, had never raced in the U.S. before, but the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Team rider adapted to the rugged and rocky terrain of the Tennessee Trials Training Center rather quickly. He also had to promptly learn TKO’s unique racing format.
“It was hard work; the first and second races were harder than I expected,” Bolt said. “I finished the first one and thought, ‘oh, this is going to be a long day.’ Then we had another long race before the main event. The main event is a little different than many hard enduros, but I enjoyed it, and if you look around, you can see that none of us have anything left, so it is harder than it sounds. I enjoyed my first race here in the U.S.”
Lettenbichler (KTM) was one of the favorites coming in, having just won the torturous Red Bull Romaniacs Hard Enduro in Romania and is one of the hottest riders on the FIM extreme off-road scene at the moment.
“The pace was really high today,” Lettenbichler said. “In the main, Billy and I got a good start with Billy right behind me. I think everyone got super tired at the end. It was really nice to race in front of the American fans. That finish was a bit crazy as I was trying to whip it a little bit at the finish and turned into a pretty big high side, but we put on a good show for the fans here. I will need to beat Billy at the next one in Poland to hopefully get some more points back on him.”
Trystan Hart filled out the TKO podium. The Canadian, on the FMF KTM, rode the entire race in third place and narrowed the gap a few times but never got close enough to challenge the top two. He instead had to worry about Sherco’s Wade Young of South Africa, who pressured him throughout the main event and nearly passed him for the final podium spot on the last lap when Hart couldn’t make it up a waterfall section. Hart, however, recovered to hold on for third with Young taking fourth.
Hart said he was more thrilled to get on the podium this year than he was to win last year’s race. “This field was so stacked, so to get a podium among these riders was great,” Hart said. “I got third off the start and those first two just sprinted so hard that I lost some time, but then I was able to ride a really strong race until the last lap when I didn’t make it up a waterfall and had to turn around and try again. I could see that Wade was right there, so it was close.”
FactoryONE Sherco’s Mario Roman and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Alfredo Gomez, both of Spain, battled for fifth and sixth throughout the race with Roman taking the number-five position.
The highest-placing American was multi-time TKO winner Cody Webb on the FactoryONE Sherco. Webb had a tough battle with Beta’s Jonny Walker for seventh place.
The Brit, Walker, got the upper hand when Webb failed to make it up a tough uphill on the final lap.
Webb had to settle for eighth, followed by Husqvarna riders Ryder LeBlond, of Pennsylvania, and Teodor Kabachiev, of Bulgaria.
After several qualifying events, which also included the Red Bull Straight Rhythm Prologue, a hot lap, and four knock-out races, Sunday’s main event decided it all. It was held on a 1.5-mile “short course” for a 30-minute plus-one-lap shootout, which would end up taking them six laps to complete. Bolt and Lettenbichler battled back and forth throughout, the two of them exchanging the lead several times. Neither were able to build a significant gap.
The final blow came when Lettenbichler made mistake on the final go-around that allowed Bolt to get ahead of him as they entered the finish straight that was made up of several logs positioned nose to tail. Lettenbichler made a push to the checkered flag that resulted in a crash as he crossed the finish line. The two hard enduro stars embraced on the track in celebration of their great battle.
In addition to the pro racing, the Red Bull Tennessee Knockout crowned amateur champions. Saturday included two rounds of amateur racing with race two serving as the championship-deciding race. During that second race, KTM rider Jared Lambe earned the number-one spot. Beta-mounted Tobin Miller finished just four seconds behind Lambe, and Sherco rider Jackson Davis rounded out the top three.
The Women’s classes had a total of 11 amateur riders and three pro riders. The amateur women competed along with the Saturday Amateur race one, and Yamaha-mounted Samantha McLeod took the win, which also qualified her for the Pro race. KTM rider Mesa Lange finished second ahead of Stephanie Daniels.
The Women’s Pro class competed along with the top amateurs on the more difficult race two and KTM rider Shelby Turner took the win over Sherco’s Louise Forsley and KTM rider Georgia Eversol. Turner took the AMA Grand Championship number-one plate and impressively finished 17th overall among all the amateur riders. CN
VIDEO | 2021 Red Bull TKO – Pro Prologue Red Bull Straight Rhythm
VIDEO | 2021 Red Bull TKO – Main Race (Raw) Highlights
2021 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout Results
- Billy Bolt (Hus)
- Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM) +2.349
- Trystan Hart (KTM) +59.574
- Wade Young (She) +1:15.753
- Mario Roman (She) + 1:47.872
- Alfredo Gomez (Hus) + 2:02.520
- Jonny Walker (Bet) + 2:46.678
- Cody Webb (She) + 3:11.413
- Ryder LeBlond (Hus) + 5:16.967
- Teodor Kabakchiev (Hus) + 6:41.371
FIM Hard Enduro World Championship Standings (Provisional)
- Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM) 54pts
- Billy Bolt (Husqvarna) 53pts
- Wade Young (Sherco) 40pts
- Mario Roman (Sherco) 37pts
- Jonny Walker (Beta) 34pts
- Taddy Blazusiak (GASGAS) 26pts
- Alfredo Gomez (Husqvarna) 24pts
- Michael Walkner (GASGAS) 21pts
- Teodor Kabakchiev (Husqvarna) 19pts
- Graham Jarvis (Husqvarna) 15pts
