Morning’s prologue winner Jonny Walker wins the Hell’s Gate 2015 race with an ecstatic ride.
After the start Spaniard Alfredo Gomez took the lead, main favourites multi-time winner Graham Jarvis and his Great Britain mate Walker didn’t have the best of starts. While Jarvis made quick moves on the first lap, Walker seemed not so fresh in his movements. On the entry to famous “Laghetto” uphill Gomez lost his seat and all hopes for a victory. A few sections later it became worse for the young Spaniard when his engine got stuck due sucking water through the big hole where the seat is supposed to be. On the beginning of lap 2 it all changed: Walker arrived with a big lead and Jarvis was missing because he drowned his bike in the water.
On spot two the first big surprise came through: Young Spanish Mario Roman showed great trial skills on his very first hard enduro race. Actually competing in the WEC, Roman showed no respect of the big names and chased after Walker. In spot number three the battle was on between German veteran Andreas Lettenbichler and Austrian surprise (2nd in Prologue!) Lars Enoeckl. The two battled back and forward until only Enoeckl came early enough in time to make it to the finish (if a rider reaches a checkpoint more than 30 minutes behind the leader of the race, he is out and is not allowed to continue). With only three riders on the 4th and last lap, Jonny Walker brought it home safely and was carried up by many fans over famous “Hell’s Peak” uphill to the finish. In the end his victory was never doubted. For second place it got tight, when Roman got completely stuck on Hell’s Peak and Enoeckl was already in sight. Enoeckl took his only chance, passed the stucked Roman until he also couldn’t make it without help any more. The fact that the spectators had only one long rope on Hell’s Peak, costed Enoeckl 2nd place as he had to watch the fans carrying Roman passed him to the top. Still both of them were more then happy, first that they made it to the finish and second about their very first Hard Enduro podium! Last years winner Graham Jarvis finally called it a day and gave up after lap 3 and Andreas Lettenbichler also had to stop because of physical problems.
Text: Peter Reitbauer