16.06.2012: Make it or break
Jarvis rides a lonely race ahead of the field, Birch engages with Letti in the battle for the 2nd place. Red Bull Romaniacs Offroad Day Three brought it on with 19.000 altitude meters and went “full throttle”
Sibiu, Romania, June 16th, 2012 – At 5.55 in the morning, deep down in a steep valley, the Red Bull Romaniacs Offroad Day Three took off. It was a cold morning, most riders were still stiff and in pain from the previous day and the warming sun seemed to be light-‐years away. While everyone was thinking about how to get warm and find their flow as quickly as possible, head-‐trackmanager Klaus Sorensen and Red Bull Romaniacs mastermind Martin “Freijn” Freinademetz rolled out their vicious plan to show the world`s elite of Hard Enduro riders their limits. Today they threw a total of 19.000 altitude-‐meters at them, of which 1.000m were already covered in a single, never ending hill-‐climb: “Please no rain”. The beautiful Romanian countryside, the perfect weather fun sections like the full-‐ throttle “A8” made up for the pain and helped the riders to partially recover.
Except for one, the plan to bring everyone to their limits had worked out and most riders returned quite destroyed back at the paddock. Not so Graham Jarvis. He rode a lonely race today – defending his undisputed claim to be the king of the Carpathians for the third day. Andreas “Letti” Lettenbichler kept chasing after him in the morning but after getting clutch problems and losing precious 20 minutes in “Please no rain”, he had to let Jarvis go. Jarvis arrived at the finish 15 minutes before the minimum estimated riding time and surprised all Red Bull Romaniacs staff at the checkpoints, service points and finish with his unexpected early arriving – interrupting their well earned breaks. Klaus Sorensen: “Jarvis is a rider from a different planet. Everyone else arrived as planned ca. 15 minutes after the minimum estimated riding time, Jarvis 15 minutes before...!” Graham Jarvis: “It was pretty lonely for me out there today, the only two riders I saw, were two guys from the Hobby-‐class. But it was a fun ride, even in the “Please no rain” section. The “A8” was a blast!”. Martin “Freijn” Freinademetz confirmed again that the perfect conditions play in favor of undercutting the minimum riding times, but that the track
had to be designed with the option of rain in mind. In this case, 50% of the field would have dropped out by now.
Another surprise today was the stunning come-‐back of 2010 Red Bull Romaniacs-‐winner Chris Birch. After going through a valley of pain all day during Offroad Day Two, his fans were wondering how long he would be able to keep going. An early morning dialogue between Chris Birch and Darryl Curtis illustrates their attitude: Curtis, coughing like a old man that has been smoking forever: "I have bronchitis, I can't really breathe!” Chris: "get over it, it's just a soar throat!" Curtis to Chris, who`s foot is likely to be broken: "get over it, it's just a soar foot! Quitting is not a option..." Birch took that advice and delivered a brilliant race, starting from 7th position and finishing as 2nd of the day. Chris Birch: “I had a beautiful day today and really got to enjoy myself again on the bike, best part was the “A8” on top of the mountain!”
An attitude, that might be up for Jonny Walker to adopt: the “Wunderkind”, who got up bright and early today after almost missing the start yesterday, had to struggle through a crash, in which he hurt his shoulder. Despite that he kept enjoying the race and performed like a Red Bull Romaniacs veteran, finishing 6th. It might have helped that he had joined a strategic alliance with Melcior Faja (4th) and Xavi Galindo (5th), in which they took turns navigating all day.
