As usual during the Red Bull Romaniacs, riders had a very early morning, starting with the delivery of the loaded GPS devices at 5am at the race headquarters. Shortly after, the riders transferred individually via a connecting stage to the Offroad Start, from where the first riders left at 6.30am. There was some light rain the night before, leaving the tracks very slippery in the morning and riders in cautious mode. Nevertheless, the first half of the day rolled out as planned and the top riders arrived well within the estimated riding times.
The starting order for the morning was defined by the results of yesterday`s prolog: Paul Bolton started ahead of Graham Jarvis and Jonny Walker. Bolton was the first to hit the virgin track after the track openers and adjusted well to the slippery conditions and the navigation. Bolton kept building on his starting gap of 5min until after the service point, when Walker managed to gain some time on him. Meanwhile Jarvis was struggling with small wipeouts and navigation issues. Later, Walker stayed behind Jarvis for quite some time and benefited from the “King`s” Red Bull Romaniacs experience. The three of them made their way through the first sections – among them the feared “Doomed” and arrived at the service point in the same order, as they started in the morning. After the service point, Bolton was still going on cruise control and was unstoppable in the extreme sections. But wet logs under the leaves sent him flying a few times and let him end up on third position for the day. After the third wipeout, Bolton threatened himself: “if you fall off again, you are going home!”
Lars Enöckl`s misfortune yesterday during the prologue presented him a late start. The Austrian had caught a banner after a wipeout and missed several minutes trying to free his bike from the advertising! With his late start today, he did not manage to find a riding buddy that was able to keep up with him and he travelled, like Bolton, mostly alone throughout the morning. Chris Birch, who joined forces a few times with Wade Young, approached the first day carefully and walked his KTM down a steep trail – but still lost control and had to watch it cartwheeling down the hill, resulting in some minor damage. He had another wipeout later in the quarry, but did not suffer from any injuries.
The quarry also managed to get Letti slightly scared: he lost balance over a loose rock and tumbled towards the edge of a cliff. Fortunately he recovered in time and got away with a scare. Letti had already arrived slightly hurt in Sibiu: after having to deal with some spinal-disk problems before the race, he had been worried if racing would be possible at all. Another 4th place today after yesterday`s 4th in the prologue clearly indicate Letti`s ambitions for another place on the podium (3rd 2013).
During Offroad Day Three, the quarry, the “Doomed”-section and the offroad finish ended up being the main highlights of the day: The Silver-Class got terribly stuck in “Doomed”, the Bronze-Class were slaughtered in front of hundreds of spectators in the quarry and even Gold-Class riders had to be pulled up the Offroad Finish. One section that repeatedly came up as “gnarly” in the reports of the Gold-class riders, was the “Sherco-river” – an uphill creek with extremely slippery rocks.
When passing through the difficult passages, there were huge time-differences between the top-riders of each class and the slower competitors: the top three for example, plowed through a particularly hard patch in 16 minutes, the 10th rider after them already needed 30mins. The last Gold-Class rider passing the section even needed 1hr 16mins!
Shortly after, Graham Jarvis finished Offroad Day One in just over four hours, he was seen having lunch in the hotel – while the majority of the Silver-class hadn`t even arrived at the Service point!
Red Bull Romaniacs: Day 1 Results:
1. Jonny Walker, GBR, KTM, 4 hours 09.08
2. Graham Jarvis, GBR, Husqvarna 4:15.10
3. Paul Bolton, GBR, KTM, 4:19.27
4. Andreas Lettenbichler, GER, KTM, 4:29.23
5. Chris Birch, NZL, KTM, 4:36.59
6. Wade Young, RSA, KTM, 4:38.17
7. Philipp Scholz, GER, KTM, 4:52.36
8. Lars Enoeckl, AUT, KTM, 5:03.53
9.Miha Spindler, SVN, Beta, 5:07.24
10. Blake Gutzeit, RSA, Husqvarna, 5:12.18