Enduro: Jarvis secures emphatic Red Bull Romaniacs win

Britain’s Graham Jarvis has secured another dominant victory in the gruelling Red Bull Romaniacs event – the fifth of his distinguished career. The 41 year old riding the Husqvarna TE300 finished third fastest in the Day One prologue, before upping his pace as the event left the town centre of Sibiu and headed into the Romanian wilderness.

As the course headed in to the mountains on day two, Jarvis used his sublime skills to overhaul his main rivals and take the lead.

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Day three saw heavy overnight rain fall, making the near impossible route even harder. But as he has shown time and again, the harder it is, the more Jarvis excels due to his incredible trials riding skill which saw him finish fourth in the World Trials championship earlier in his career.

Jarvis was pushed at times by KTM factory rider Alfredo Gomez, Sherco rider Wade young and his own Husqvarna team-mate Mario Ramon. In what was a close fight for second Gomez eventually held of Young, despite a strong push by the South African on the final day, which saw him set the fastest time of the day.

Speaking after the race, Jarvis who continues to remain the Extreme Enduro benchmark despite his age said: “I wouldn’t say I’m getter better with age, I’ve got more aches and pains. The days were that long and I was starting to think am I getting too old for this, but I think the younger guys were struggling too.

“Day two was key for me, there were a couple of really tough climbs which I managed to get up cleanly. If you don’t you end up having to zigzag up them. I passed Wade (Young) on one and that enabled me to make a break. I’m over the moon.”

While it was a good event for the Brits with Jarvis winning, it saw a high particularly high attrition rate.

The highest profile casualty was factory KTM man Jonny Walker. In what was Walker’s first international race back after breaking his Fibula earlier this year, the 25 year old caught his leg on a tree stump that was hidden on long grass and re-broke his old injury. Riding on one leg he managed to get to the end of the day, but subsequently retired and returned to the UK for surgery.

Another top Brit Paul Bolton was also forced to retire on day two when he caught his head on a tree branch and cracked a vertebrae in his neck.

Star of the future, 18 year old Billy Bolt, somehow got to the end of his first ever RedBull Romaniacs. After falling of the path and being unable to get back up to it, Bolt was forced to drop down the side of the mountain further and further away from where he needed to be. Completely lost he was eventually found six hours later.

British rider Andrew Noakley won the Silver class with Czech rider Miroslav Culka winning the Bronze and Paniard Oscar Hernandez Panos securing the win in the Iron class.

 

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