The day kicked off with a beautiful start in the mountains: there were clouds beneath the starting area, with red roof tops peeping through and the helicopter swirling high above with a mountain backdrop. With a very high frequency of uninviting sections for all classes (except Silver-class) and extremely steep profiles, Offroad-Day Two started as possibly the most challenging day of the 2014 Red Bull Romaniacs. Knowing what was about to hit them today, all the top-riders followed the same strategy: getting through the day in one piece and not to destruct the bike. Most of the regions covered today, were still considered “unrideable” in 2010. As expected, the Gold-Class riders were hit seriously by unimaginable extreme sections, like “10A” in the morning, just before the Service Point and “Never Ending Story” in the 2nd half of the day. When asked how Jarvis liked “10A”, he replied “no one would like this kind of section”. Walker described it as “Very hard! The downhill is extremely steep and tricky and I only focussed on saving the bike and only partially succeeded.”
Many of the top-guns already reported relatively tough crashes before the Service Point and it did not get better after. But they had no choice of taking it easy, since the competition was not sleeping. The pace was extremely high, and there were constant changes at the top. In the morning Walker kept his lead for quite some time, followed by Jarvis, Young, Bolton and Letti. After checkpoint 4, Young took the lead from Walker who said later: “I lost about 5 minutes before the Service Point after going for a swim! I had to take the bike upside down, remove the spark plug, et voila…!” With a few river crossings, the Red Bull Romaniacs Offroad Day Two had become a “swimming day” for quite a few riders. Briefly after Walker, the Austrian Gold-Class rider Lars Enöckl also drowned his bike and had to go through the same re-animation procedure. Enöckl later qualified for the “sportsman of day” title by not only letting his mechanic help Bolton after a crash, but also removing one of his GPS devices from his own handlebars and fixing it to Bolton`s!
Wade Young was on fire today. The 18 year old South African seems to have arrived for his second Red Bull Romaniacs well-prepared and good for a few surprises. Young appeared this morning fresh and well rested as the very first rider at the Offroad Start. He started 6th and took the lead before the Service Point. He even gained some time from Jarvis going through the hard sections, where the “King of the Carpathians” is very hard to beat. Letti watched him quite puzzled, lifting the bike over some obstacles while he himself was pushing and running out of breath!
The world of the Extreme Enduro top-guns seems to have indeed been inverted today. While Young managed to gain some time on Jarvis in the hard sections, Jarvis seemed to have found a secret 7th gear on his Husqvarna! He was unbelievably fast and made some of the time-gains in high-speed sections, usually not his strongest side. After the Service Point he pulled heavily on the gas and started to talk business. He blazed through “The beast”, the high-speed section “A8” and the “Never ending Story”, like it was a walk in the park. It landed him the victory for Offroad Day 2 and positioned him right after the currently leading Walker. “In terms of speed, I had to leave my comfort zone today. Jonny was pushing a lot and I did not really have a choice,” states Jarvis.
Cory Graffunder, US Endurocross star and factory replacement for Alfredo Gomez (Husqvarna) kept performing amazingly in the Carpathian mountains today. Being completely new to this kind of race, the terrain and the Red Bull Romaniacs, he finished the day as 10th and arrived unscratched and relatively relaxed in the finish. “I am happy that I made it through these insane sections in one piece, sometimes I had to take breaks in the forest and rest”, Graffunder admits. He was seen teaming up with gentleman Lars Enöckl to get through some of the hard passages.
After a specific Silver-class torture yesterday, the Silver-riders were in for some resting today and were treated more gently. Promptly, some of them arrived in the finish 20 minutes ahead of the calculated riding time and there were riders stating “too easy”. They were quickly re-assured by track director Klaus Sorensen, that they are up for a few special treats tomorrow, on Offroad Day Three.
Bolton came in 5th, impressing himself with his fitness and determination. “For some reason, I like to make things difficult for myself” he said. Before the Service Point, Bolton had 2 significant crashes, the first when he collided with some wire, wiping out his cooling fan and electric start. The second was on foot while maneuvering the machine down a super steep descent; he lost his footing and cartwheeled the bike down a ravine, wiping out his GPS. Chris Birch suffered a similar crash, knowing that when the bike left him, he must persuade it to go right, but Chris said “the bike had it’s own mind and it just careered out of control left, landing in a place of possible no return.”
Results Offroad Day 2:
| 1 | 1 | Graham Jarvis | GBR | 5:27:33 |
| 2 | 4 | Jonny Walker | GBR | 5:31:51 |
| 3 | 7 | Wade Young | ZAF | 5:32:23 |
| 4 | 3 | Andreas Lettenbichler | DEU | 5:59:40 |
| 5 | 5 | Paul Bolton | GBR | 6:23:22 |
| 6 | 6 | Chris Birch | NZL | 6:35:23 |
| 7 | 9 | Lars Enoeckl | AUT | 6:38:34 |
| 8 | 21 | Blake Gutzeit | ZAF | 6:56:44 |
| 9 | 8 | Philipp Scholz | DEU | 7:01:57 |
| 10 | 33 | Cory Graffunder | CAN | 7:05:24 |
| 11 | 10 | Miha Spindler | SVN | 7:16:15 |
| 12 | 13 | Rienk Tuinstra | NLD | 7:59:24 |
| 13 | 11 | Pierre Pallut | FRA | 8:06:44 |
| 14 | 18 | Altus De wet | ZAF | 8:09:22 |
| 15 | 30 | Mike Skinner | NZL | 8:35:25 |