Red Bull Romaniacs 2010 Blog, Day 4

25 minutes after Chris Birch has arrived, the crowd goes wild again - it's three riders arriving together: Paul Bolton, Andreas Lettenbichler and Jade Gutzeit all cross the finish line together. "Letti" has secured his podium finish on third place, and even though he couldn't repeat his victory from last year, the BMW rider is more than satisfied: "This years race was probably harder than all previous Romaniacs due to the rain. The very first offroad day made me exceed my limits, so I'm actually very happy to have reached another podium here.", says a battered and bruised Lettenbichler at the finish. For Jade Gutzeit it was his first ever attempt at the Red Bull Romaniacs, and the South African has enough reasons to be happy today. "I guess I wasn't really well prepared for that race cause I didn't expected it to be that hard. Next year I'll come back way better prepared...!", says Gutzeit.

The blazingly fast New Zealander didn't go for safety on this last stage - in fact, Birch even rode 6 minutes faster than Graham Jarvis on the last 126 km of this years Romaniacs and secured his first ever win at the world's toughest Enduro Rallye. "I'm extremely happy today, because regarding all my technical problems, I didn't even think that I would finish the race.", sais an all smiling Chris Birch.

Never give up - tis is exactly what British superstar Graham Jarvis did! A few minutes ago, Jarvis was the first rider to reach the finish - now it'll al depend on Chris Birch...

Riders struggle a lot from bad track conditions. Gerhard Forster says that is the most slippery track of the whole rallye. Incredibly hard to ride and its very exhausting today.
Hobby Riders Arcos Varga and Peter Nagy are the first in the Hobby Class accompanied by Johnston Gavin.

All expert- and pro-riders had the canyon on todays's track. But the section has been closed after so many of the world's best enduro-artists almost failed to reach the exit. Among those who managed to fight their way out of the canyon: Martin Wilholt from Germany, Lionel Seydoux, Austrian Erich Brandauer, Darryll Curtis & Riaan van Niekerk. The last rider still in stuck in the canyon is Michel Dumoulin from Belgium. He first has to fix his chain - then he will start his attempt to exit the canyon.

First to arrive at Check point 4 was Graham Jarvis at 9:29 a.m. and 3 minutes later Chris Birch arrived. They were followed by Andreas Lettenbichler, Paul Bolton and Jade Gutzeit.

The exit of the canyon seems to be a gate made of roots and mud - not willing to open for the riders. A slippery rock in a narrow path and a dangerous root-section bring the riders beyond their limits on this last stage today. Some riders fighting their way out of the canyon: Paul Bolton, Chris Birch, Andreas Lettenbichler, Jade Gutzeit & Gerhard Forster.

South African couple Riaan van Niekerk and Darryl Curtis arrive at the Canyon 19 minutes behind Seydoux, closely followed by Romanian national hero Emanuel Gyenes...

Swiss rider Lionel Seydoux is the next rider to pass the Canyon 9 minutes behind Forster. Seydoux is currently ranking 6th in the overall results after more than three hours behind Chris Birch.